Fear of Snakes

I guess the biggest thing I remember about, I arrived and we had been told a lot of things about the snakes in the country, the mambas, you know, deadly poison, if they bite you, you’re dead before, you know, in no time at all and I go and report into this building that was there, it was the orderly room type thing and this company sergeant major from the Tanzanian Army, Joseph was his name, he said, “Okay, come and I’ll show you where you’re going to be working,” and he went out the back door. And out the back door of this building was grass about 3 feet high and after all this talk we had had about the dangers of the snake, watch your walk, stay on clear ground and stuff, I’m sure I walked on top of that grass going across, you know, and the initial thing was, “Holy mackerel, where am I going here? ” But you got used to it. After I seen an African get bit and die right in the field in front of us from a snake bite, yeah, you stop worrying about it.