One creature that scared me before when I was a kid was the snake. Unlike Toronto snakes, Philippine reptiles are mostly poisonous. The only poisonous snake hereabouts is the Missisauga rattler which I have not had the pleasure of seeing yet.When I take a walk around our neighbourhood ( it is near a river ) I sometimes would see a snake crossing the road.In my mind I know that it is not poisonous, but seeing it there alive would still give me the goosepimples.
When I was a kid, I was fond of going over stuff stored in boxes behind our bedroom wardrobe. To kids there is a kind of magic in opening sealed boxes, like you might find a treasure map, or rare comic books or maybe money. You will never know what you will find in there. In my case, upon opening a box of old clothes, I found a black snake curled asleep.
My first reaction was to scream and run away from the box and told my father about what I saw..I was trembling so badly he took a piece of wood and went to it see for himself. I was still too shaken to approach those boxes so I just waited outside in the living room.. "What snake are you talking about?" I heard my father say, while he poked the contents of the box in question. "There is nothing here.." Not less than a minute after saying this, I heard the box fall to the floor, then I heard the continous banging of the wood on the floor..I was right after all! When he came out, he was carrying the snake in one hand, the stick in the other. The snake's head was bashed in.It was black and even if it is dead, to me it was still a terrifying sight.
Our house has lots of cracks and crevices especially in the first floor where the walls were made of red brick. One time I saw the body of a snake filling up a crevice. I poked it with a stick ready to kill it too. But it dissapeared sinking further into the crevice. The bricks of our house makes it easy for the creatures to crawl up and down on its surface. One time my brother and I were talking to our mom when I saw a snake slithering on the wall. My brother saw a stout stick nearby and hit the creature on the head. The color of the snake was green. Some snakes are red or brown. Whatever color it is I would hate stepping on it by accident especially if I am wearing only sandals.
There was a juetengan near our house at one time. Jueteng is the forbidden game in the Philippines. It sent one President to jail. But Filipinos still people play it, clandestinely of course.
Before the drawing of the 3 lucky numbers on that morning, there was a commotion among the juetengeros. It turned out that a small python came out of a hole near the house. The reptile was caught immediately by the men. As the numbers were not drawn yet, some players said.."OK, I will put in some more bets..They selected a set of 3 numbers which mean a big snake. I can't remember if those numbers came out in the draw or not.
One time there was a small bush fire near the chruch yard in front of our house. The fire was contained immediately by passersby with dirt, water and whatever they can use to stop it from spreading. A big area of the church yard, which was full of talahib at that time was completely burned. There were about 2 big snakes, burned like over-sized tupigs, right in the middle of it.
Snakes love to sleep in trees. If a tree is beside your house back home, better get rid of it or at least prune it. A neighbour's bedroom window was jsut beside the branch of a tree in her yard. One night, as she was about to lie down on her bed, she switched on the light and screamed. There was a big snake which was already asleep on her bed. It came through the window via the tree branch. The next day, all trees around her house were pruned.
Perla Sampaga Romero one of the pioneer photographers in Asingan originally had a studio ( and residence ) in the corner of the street going to Urdaneta, just in front of the Salcedo building. She is noted for being featured one time as the subject of a magazine article in the now defunct Sunday Times magazine. The article was entitled SMALL TOWN PHOTOGRAPHER..I know this because I WAS in one of the photos. One line of the article said she developed her photo negatives at night because she had no darkroom..Well, one day she built a darkroom so she can develop her negatives in the daytime. ( Digital photography was not even been dreamt of at this time ). She entered the darkroom to develop some negatives when she felt something bite her. She thought it was just a bug or something. Five minutes later, she began to feel weak and dizzy. In 10 minutes, a whole mob surrounded the house.
The local MA-NGA-GAS ( Medicine Man ) was called. He is one of the fellows who knows a little of everything from assisting mothers giving birth or fixing a water buffalo's lame leg. From the symptoms shown by the patient, refering to nana Perla, he knew at once it was a snake bite. He first cleared the room of the unnecessary people who just came probably to see whether the patient will survive or not. He worked on removing the venom ( I dont know how he did it ) but it took him quite a long time. But Nana Perla survived the ordeal. She is the aunt of my brother-in-law, Teofilo Sampaga. -----#
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