And, just to emphasize that they own the art, they
have those half brinks named after the town; Kajjansi, as known to many
Ugandans.
It’s believed that almost 30% of families in the out
shirts of Kajjansi survive on pottery and other clay works that, even as you
walk down the dusty road, the displayed charcoal stoves, half bricks and clay
roofs were enough evidence that in this place, curving and molding staff out of
clay is no rocket science.
In my mind, I could imagine one of the residential
kids standing in front of the camera to claim what he believes; “Clay, it is
the strength of a nation.” (I wonder what the army thinks about this advert)
When I visited Kajjansi a few weeks back, I didn’t
think of any alarming signposts besides bars, schools, churches and of course
clay workshops.
It’s because of this that the sign post reading “Kampala Snake Park” truly took me by
surprise. I wondered; which kind of people would visit a Snake Park, which kind
of people would live next to a snake park? Which kind of people would even
dedicate their time to run a collection of rattles…mbu Snake Park? For crying out it is a SNAKE PARK.
The curiosity made this trip materialize and, not to
be caught off guard, I travelled all suited for snake warfare.
The snake park is about 3 kilometers off the main
road. In my mind we were heading to some deserted grey area without a neighborhood,
the reptiles would be all over the place, trees and some probably rubbing
shoulders with us.
On such adventure, I opted for more protective wear
like a trouser replacing my usual travel shorts, long sleeved T-shirt and a jacket
on top and yes, I had gloves in my pocket just in case.
The actual snake park is quite a small affair; huts,
house or snake pens, whatever name they call these shelters; they don’t look
like one to house even a spider.
In fact, when the boda boda guy dropped me off, I
still asked him If he had brought me to the right place. It had to be a place
only for the brave ones yet, all I was seeing was a mini African recreation
center.
We headed to the reception, it was a cool place, and
the temperatures here would make you forget about the blistering sun rays on
your way.
The assistant at the reception took us to Charlotte
Nankunda Kyaterekera, the director of the park and Kenneth Semyalo, the snake
handler.
Both Charlotte and Kenneth were at the Python cage.
They were digging a hole for a white something.
“These are the eggs of the python,” said Charlotte
of the rugged white thing.
“They are about forty eggs, but, when the female python
coils around them for warmth, they get attached.” She said.
“Soon, we shall be adding about forty reptiles to
our family.” She concluded happily.
She led us to the first snake shelter; they were
beautifully built with an artistic decoration. The shelters were built using
the Masengere rocks which look too beautiful and fit to house humans. Unlike
bricks, the Masengere don’t produce extreme heat, they easily provide a cool
moist atmosphere that snakes enjoy. Since all building at the park are similar,
this explains the very cool moist at the reception.
The interior of the shelters is designed to suit the
snake species inhabiting the rooms. There were trees, sand and a pond of water
in each. For some like the Jackson’s tree snakes, the trees and grass were greener
and fresh, just like in the wild. Part of the shelter roof was only covered
with a thick net, the opening was to allow the snake access natural light.
Each room had between two to four snakes of the same
species; it’s only the house and green snake species that shared a room.
According to Kenneth these two are friendly towards other snakes.
“When snakes of different species are put together, one
specie would eat these weaker ones”, he said.
However, as in regard to the forest cobra, all this
changes. The forest cobras (the most common ones in Uganda) eat their own
species, thus the bigger forest cobras don’t share rooms with their young ones.
Kenneth is truly a trained handler. He walked into
the forest cobras’ den and stood face to face with these aggressive predators
with nothing but a metallic rod to direct them. You could think they understood
who he was.
He told us quite a number of interesting facts about
the snakes in the park. All the snakes shade off their skin once in a month
apart from the Vipers that only shade once in 2 months, in fact the ponds in
snake shelters was for them to make a swim before they shade.
He differentiated to us between the old and new skin,
the old skin looked pale and rough yet the new skin was shinny, attractive like
those snakes in movies and magazines. The python (central African rock) being
the biggest had more new skin to show thus, in regard to a python, new skin is
weirdly very beautiful to look at.
In his explanation, Kenneth told us that snakes grow
fats, and as they do, they outgrow their old skin too.
“At the time of shading, the snakes splits the old
skin at the nose and crawls out of it,” he said.
Its one process that scientists would die to witness
but even when many of the snakes possessed the old skin, Kenneth was sure we
were not witnessing any of them shade.
Kenneth also doubles as the snakes’ feeders, he says,
“Snakes feed twice in a month apart from the python which feeds once in a month.”
They feed on chicks, hens, birds, toads, chameleons
and rats. The python however feed on goats, for the 8 or so feet long one and
rabbits for the smaller one. Snakes are
fed according to their weight, once over fed, they die.
Most of the snakes in the park include the forest
and Egyptian cobra, pretty and neat venomous species; they will lift their
heads and spread out their hood when you approach their den.
Jameson’s mamba, fast moving, diurnal, secretive
tree snake, it climbs fast and expertly.
Jackson’s tree snake, this particular one made an
attempt on us with its mouth wide and fangs out. The poor thing must be cursing
the dude who invented glass, which was the only barrier between us and it’s ill
intentions.
The forest vine snake, according to Charlotte and
Kenneth is the most dangerous snake on the park. Small as it looks, it’s the
only Ugandan snake without any anti-venom to date.
“When that one bites you, there is little we can do
to help you survive.” She says.
Its color is quite confusing that it can camouflage
with dry bits of wood and still goes unnoticed.
Besides snakes the park is also home to reptiles;
monitor lizards, crocodiles, telepines and the tortoises. Other species include
a serval cat, spotted common large genet and the velvet monkey.
The park was established on 25th December
2009 and today, they have a collection of more than 15 snake species and over 70
snakes.
The park attracts both local and foreigners on a
Ugandan visit.
“The attitude of the Ugandans towards snakes is
changing, many have started frequenting this place to see the creatures” she
says.
When she mentioned the change of attitude, I
couldn’t help but remember the conversation I had with the Boda boda guy on my way.
He had told me of a rich man whose house was invaded
by a relatively smaller python, on learning about it, he called the police,
military police, and Anti-riot police, made an alert that the entire
neighborhood gathered and finally called the Ugandan Wildlife Authority. Even
when they removed it, he had the fully repainted, relocated for three months
before returning….attitude changing towards snakes, maybe, maybe not.
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