“Lori! Come downstairs and bring your camera!” I have plenty of little photo scouts in my family. Usually the prospective picture involves a sunset, an unusual flower, or a butterfly. Sometimes it’s Alaina looking adorable in one of her legendary messes.

This time, though, it was something different. Something I’m quite glad I don’t have the opportunity to photograph every day. When I got outside armed with my faithful Canon, I was greeted with a little crocodile – Frank’s new project. His powerful jaws were tied shut with an old rag, but the ferocious hisses he let out when people got too close was enough to make most of us keep our distance.

Mr. Croc O. Dile

And then there was that thing in the rice bag. When the guys were out in the village to drill wells, someone had caught a cobra (no, I don’t know how they managed that), and Frank wanted to bring it home to show the rest of us. So into the rice bag went Mr. Cobra until the boys were done for the day. Now, the rest of the family gathered a safe distance from Frank and Ryan as they worked together, a bit nervously, to let the snake out of the bag. He came out warily and slowly. Ryan put the end of a long pole on the snake’s back so that I could take some pictures. Cobras really are beautiful in a creepy crawly sort of way, if you stop and take a look [from far away].

Frank

With the two ‘dangerous animals’ on our property, everyone was a little on edge. Quiet Mr. Croc O. Dile made for some hilarious moments. Several times while carefully backing away from the cobra, people almost stepped on him, and the resulting hisses were enough to stop your heart and send you running for your life. Once the phone in Sen’s pocket vibrated, and Sen nearly jumped out of his skin, because the snake ‘was about the get him’! I think Dad got video footage of some of those moments, so if you want a good laugh, come see us.

Finally, when I had enough pictures and the snake was tired of the attention, they killed the slithery serpent, and we all relaxed. The neighbors that had gathered to watch the action through our gate went home, one of them taking the cobra for supper! The crocodile now resides in a pool at Frank’s house – I think he’s fattening up for a feast.

Mom and Alaina keeping their distance.

Frank trying to get Alaina to touch the crocodile.

The cobra made me think of once when I was a little girl…Ryan came running into the trailer to tell me and mom that “There’s a snake in the big tree, and he’s spitting poison!” Further investigation proved that there was indeed a snake in the tree. In fact, there were three 5 foot black snakes that had decided our big oak was the perfect home for them. No spitting cobras were to be found though. =) Little did we know that 15 years later we would be in a land where there really are snakes that spit poison. Thankfully most of the snakes seem to like to keep themselves hidden.

Exciting News…

A couple months ago, we were super excited when some dear friends of ours called and said their whole family had tickets to come see us in November! (And we still are excited, for that matter.) You should have heard the happy shouts when dad told us. Time for them to come is sneaking right up, and we can hardly wait for Charles’ to get here!

Some of you have asked for our mailing address here in Cambodia. We’d LOVE to get mail, but the fact of the matter is that the postal system here has much to be desired. Of all the envelopes that people have sent over, we’ve only gotten one so far. Packages are a bit less likely to get lost somewhere in the Pacific, but the postage costs are atrocious. So, usually when people ask for an address, I give it, but tell them that the best way to get something to us is to wait until someone is coming over here in person. And now, someone is! If anyone has Christmas cards for us this year, Charles’ address would be the place to send them. We’d love to hear from you! I checked with Donna about luggage space, and I think they should have plenty of room. =) If you want to send something, just ask me for their contact information and I’ll try to get it to you as soon as possible. They are leaving in the middle of November.

Well, it’s supper time here, so until next time…