After one uneventful evening visiting a home of volunteers, I got back to my house where we encountered much excitement (relayed to me by the volunteers that were somehow in my house for unknown reasons) and this was because they had killed a snake. People were shaky, it must have been a big deal, everyone was surging with no-longer-necessary adrenaline. I was taken to see the body of this offensive viper and was amazed at how small and generally underwhelming it was (not that I said so). The theatrical performance continued as the boys proceeded to pick it up using a plank of wood and drop it in a bucket, then fill the bucket with paper and plastic, before setting fire to it. My housemate turned his back, warning me that the snake would come back to life so I should be careful and stay well away. Then when the fire was dying down, they put more fuel in and burnt it all over again! I understand that when it first appeared in the garden the UK volunteer present had been bundled indoors without an explanation and locked in...for her own safety. While the boys repeatedly set fire to the ashes of the snake, I sat on the veranda with the ladies and listened to one of the in country volunteers explain to me how through jewjew magic Ghanaians would send snakes to kill each other. This is what makes them so dangerous. It seems that if a snake has been bewitched even the non-biting type will kill you with one mouthful.
I don't believe in jewjew magic. And without it I'm still not sure how dangerous the local snake population would be.
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