Timorese Kept Me Awake At Night

November 23, 2021

Have you ever held a snake in your life? That's an absurd question. Who wants to hold a snake anyway?

Perhaps you have seen some business owners petting snakes as they believe they attract luck in their businesses. Some would pet Koi fish like the Chinese. Some are turtles as they attract good employment, thus good wealth. Well, we all got it from Chinese beliefs and we Filipinos believed as well as we are being influenced by Chinese culture and traditions.

The word Timorese. Does it ring the bell?

In case you don't know, people from East Timor are called Timorese. It's an island country in Southeast Asia and a neighbor of Australia and surrounded by Indonesian West Timor.

From snakes to Timorese, what am I up to? I felt discombobulated as well, lol. These memories vividly remain in my mind that I want to share.

If you have read my article The Convergence Of My Real + Digital World, you probably know that my father was one of the Filipino soldiers that were sent abroad (in East Timor and Australia), as part of the United Nations team from the Philippines. That was way back in 2000 and I was still in primary by that time. After his mission, our life situation got much better.

When he went back home from his mission, we were happy as we finally saw him after half a year of staying abroad and dealing with other people. We have seen how our mother prayed for his safety each day and longed for his return.

As he stepped foot in the house, the first thing he proudly showed to us was the creature he brought from East Timor that was hiding inside his small military bag. As he put down and opened the bag, a young belly crawler creature that bears no limbs and dressed with scales slowly glided out of it, hissed, and flicked its tongue.

And we kids exclaimed in horror when the venomous creature appeared at our sight. And we almost ran out of the house and I got goosebumps all over my body. Our father later picked up the baby python and playfully scared us. Then he explained that it was still fangless, very young, and safe to carry. He called the python Timorese, from the name of the people in East Timor. I wasn't sure of its gender, but let's call it "he", lol.

Our courageous big brother tried to touch him and the baby python's tail snuggled around his arm. My brothers laughed at it and seemingly enjoyed touching its smooth body. I, on the other hand, was terrified and couldn't seem to control my goosebumps. I was the only girl in the family by that time, *sigh*, there's no one to share my fear, lol.

Since snakes like cold places, our basin with water became its haven and our father regularly fed the baby python with meat, pork, or chicken (sosyal na ahas lage karne, lol). That was the very first wild animal we ever had at home. We do have cats and dogs, but I can't call them wild, haha.

My father didn't build a cage for him, rather, he placed the python in our antique cabinet's drawer with old clothes as his blanket.

As days went by, the baby python wasn't a baby anymore as he started to grow longer and built a quite bigger frame. He started to show his fangs as well and our father would cut them regularly using a nail cutter to keep us safe from it. At day, our basin with water was his playground, while our drawer was his bed at night.

Our family seemed to adjust to having him around fastly, especially my naughty brothers. But never in my case.

Each day the sun falls and the moon rises, I cannot contain my worries as the python kept crawling in my mind. His drawer was just located near our bed and every time we hit the sack, there were a plethora of what-ifs that clouded my mind and kept me awake at night.

"What if it escapes and crawls down to us?"

"What if it goes to our bed and snuggles down on our bed?"

"What if it curls behind me and when I lay flat, I would accidentally crush it and it would bite me?"

Those were the thoughts that kept bugging me before drifting off to sleep. And the thought of it crawling on my body cannot be shrugged off my mind that kept me worried all the time, even though it was fangless and seemed to familiarize its surroundings and its so-called human family.

One day the python sneaked out of his drawer and was nowhere to be found. We frantically searched for it, and when I visited our baby brother who was sleeping on his hammock, I spotted the grown-up python slithering on the hammock's rope and I screamed horribleness and feared that it might crawl towards my sleeping baby brother (but my brother was awakened by my screams, lol). My father heard it and shortly picked the playful python up and placed it on his shoulder. Geez. The sight of it on my father's shoulder sent shivers down my spine.

But you might ask, did he live longer?

Perhaps, the python got bored staying inside our vicinity and opted to play outside of our house. He visited our neighbor's yard and our neighbor wasn't aware that we have a snake. Poor Timorese. He died on the hands of our wicked neighbor. He was killed by our neighbor's big bolo and my father's heart sank when he saw its bloody dead body. Our brothers were sad as well as the python became their good pet already.

Although I felt relieved that no more python was crawling around our house, the thought of his dead body and my family's sad faces made me sad as well. They then buried the cold-blooded creature behind our house, and my grieving little brothers wept by its grave.

It was the end of Timorese's journey in this world.

Aside from Timorese, we did pet other wild animals after his death. My father isn't only a plant lover but an animal lover too, and he would sometimes hunt for wild animals in the woods along with my brother. Some wild animals we had before were iguanas, turtles, and wild birds.

Recently, my brother caught an eagle when he was hunting in the mountain near us and brought it home. My father bought a cage for it and they fed it regularly with fish or other meats. Unfortunately, my sister told me when I asked for the photo of it that my brother had already sold it. Perhaps, so he could buy lottery tickets as he's addicted to it.

Apart from cats and dogs, we have new pets at home and I love them. By the way, our other dog recently gave birth to these cute puppies. And look at one of our cats, it is still young and it's cute too. Our house is like a zoo already, lol, as my auntie called it before.

We have winged animals, two parrots, can not mimic words though. And hens and roosters. I believed our roosters are saved for cockfight events held in our place as my father sometimes bet for it. Poor roosters. Our late grandfather loved roosters too and his roosters won many times in different cockfights.

We also had ducks before as we have a small pond beside our house and a river behind it. Some sailed away on the little amazon river, some explored the nipa (tropical palm tree) jungle on the opposite side of the river, and they never came back home. Maybe our friendly neighbors caught and placed them on their woks, lol.

We also had pigeons when we were younger. My brothers like to pet them. But they are all grown up now and don't suit to pet pigeons anymore, so we currently have none at home.

And our new pets that I liked the most, two rabbits and a telescope fish in our aquarium. I was surprised to know that we have rabbits at home. When @Sydney posted her rabbits' photos on noisecash, I planned to buy one as well once I get back home. But I don't need to buy anymore.

So those are the pets we have and had at home. I can call our house a little jungle. We have a lot of plants and animals at home, aside from my naughty brothers, lol. Of course, we humans are the most clever and beautiful animals, haha.

But have you ever tasted cooked wild animals? Or what we called exotic foods.

Here's a wee story:

One night, my father and our neighbor were having their tuba (coconut wine) drinking session at home. They had pulutan (an appetizer taken with drinks) that smelled good and enticing, and I thought it was chicken. I asked my father what was it and he said it was chicken. I picked one and tasted it. That's the only time he revealed the truth and told me it was python's meat.

And that was the very first time I tasted exotic food. It was tasty though.

Another exotic food I tasted was Iguana's meat. I mentioned above that our brother likes hunting wild animals, which includes Iguana. Some were petted, while some were cooked. I guess Ilocanos here eat Iguana meat too. The meat was cooked in coconut milk with chili. It tasted good like chicken meat.

My father is Ilocano. The name of the Filipinos living at North-Western Luzon in the Philippines. Ilocanos have a lot of exotic food recipes. But I never dare to taste some as I find them too exotic and not enticing.

But, is duck meat exotic too?

I mentioned we had ducks before too. Some eloped (lol) and went to neighbors' woks, while some ended up on our wok 🙈. Duck meat when grilled is yummy though.

What about the goat meat?

Another kind of animal we have at home is goat. Ilocanos like eating goat's meat and my father even bought nanny and billy goats to raise at home, they are big now with kids (baby goats). Some were placed at our farm that is a few kilometers away from home but were stolen by our friendly neighbors, so my father opted to raise the remaining ones at the grass field near home. And at night, they will be moved to their little house located within our yard. Some were butchered and served in our Fiesta.

My mother also likes raising pigs and chickens, usually reserved for our Fiesta. So we have this little poultry and piggery in our backyard. But they are currently empty by now as the chickens and pig were butchered last Fiesta.

I told you our kingdom is like a little jungle. An amazon river at the back, a small pond beside it, and it is being surrounded by different plants, even inside our house has plants, and with different mammals, I mean, pets, lol.

When I read @JonicaBradley new prompt Wildlife. I ignored it as we don't have wild animals here at home (in HK). But after reading @LykeLyca story about Iggy's Adventure In The Wild, it reminded me of our iguana and Timorese pets before.

So that is all folks. So what's your story about wildlife? You can join too. Write at least 600 words of original content about wildlife, and submit it to the PromptlyJonica community. Don't forget to tag Jonica.

Thanks for reading.

Madam @Jeaneth do you still remember my story about our snake before? This is it pansit! 😅

©read.cash/@Jane (All Rights Reserved 2021)

Time of writing: 11/22/21 @1:30 pm