@Kiingsley 21 February 2022

It's Braveness Was Monday heltic for you? Mine went very well with lots of free time to do my things here, I had time to press my phone to the fullness and I enjoyed doing so. At a point, my phone got so hot that I had to place it inside a deep freezer to regain its strength. Yeah, my phone is my baby! Earlier today while going to bank, I was on bike when i saw some guys holding a big long killed snake, they were displaying it for sale. I would have snapped but I was on bike I can't just tell the motorcyclist to stop that I want to take a snap. lol🤗 The snake I saw gave me this idea of writing today. First of all, do you have phobia for snake? Almost all the ladies I know fall on this category. Even guys are not left out. I remember when I asked a friend of mine would he do when he finds a snake in his a room at night. His reply got me away🤣. I grew up in a rural environment (have said this countless times), our school was a local community school that uses the students to do Manual works, such as cutting grass, sweeping the large premises and other works. Then, the school assembles "outside brooms"(thick brooms used to sweep outside) used by students to sweep premises every morning in a class by class roaster and it's usually early hours of the morning before 7:00am. The only means the school uses to get the brooms is via the students, they would tell us to go inside the bush to cut the particular plant used as broom. Did I said "bush"? It's a forest because the kind of required plant used for the broom is not found in common areas unless you go into the deep. **Let me tell you more about the broom.** The broom is comprised of a lined up, well parked stick from a particular plant, the plant it is cut and combined in a straight form, with their branches scattered wide, used as the sweeping tip.

Image source https://www.123rf.com/photo_72288509_broom-bush.html ________________________ One certain week, all the male in my class were asked to submit this broom and we no the consequences for defaulters,,,lashes of cane🤦. The plant is not seen in common places, not even our farming areas have it, unless we have to go deep into the thick Forest and that means Travelling far. One of the class member suggested we go in group because he knows where we could get it. That's simple for us. Four us agreed to join him and we scheduled the next Saturday for that. It got to the Saturday, we all came out and converged in the guy's place with our bicycles and Cutlass each. We set out for the journey and we had fun riding the bicycle to a far land, we were even competing on who drives fast on the way. We took almost three hours to get to the land and indeed, it's a thick Forest. We got there and packed our bicycles, we didn't chained them because bicycle theft was not common then. We launched into the bush and luckily we found the plant and we cut all of them...do you know why cut all of them? Yeah, we could sell some parts and make money when we get home because it's not wisdom to submit everything to school. Oh! I forgot to tell you, we took spade along because we had the intention of hunting Rabbit after getting the broom. So after we've gotten the brooms, we started searching for rabbit holes and we saw one the looked like it. None of us were able to detect if the hole was actually a rabbit whole, so we all just took faith and said we should dig it and see.

Image source https://unsplash.com/photos/pASHRAKiDeU Yeah, we cleared the environment, surrounded it so as not to miss it incase it pops out from anywhere. One guy was digging while the four of us were holding our cultlasses ready to strike the big rabbit as it comes out ("big rabbit" how did we know what we've not seen?🤣).

Image source https://whyy.org/episodes/our-favorite-rabbit-holes/ The guy dug to some extent and he got tired so I switched with him. I dug to a particular place that seemed has its residential place, I'm not that good in this particular stage because it needs someone with tactics to handle, so I switched with another person again. Thank God the guy than handed over was good. Immediately he got thrust two spade, he said to us; ***Him****: Guys, be on alert. I'm sensing it, we are about to kill it.* ***One of us****: Okay, please be smart too because we can't afford to loose it.* *(He thrust the spade again and he exclaimed.)* ***Him****: it's a snake ooo!* Omo! You need to see how one guy dropped his Cutlass and took off race. We laughed so loud at him🤣. I and the other guy remaining on the scene stood firm, and firmly gripped our Cutlasses ready for war. Braveness! The guy digging it was so brave too that he used his tactics to pin down the snake inside the hole. He used the spade to drag it out while it's still slightly alive, moving its head, bringing out its poisonous tongue. Upon seeing this, the other reamaining one got scared and shifted back a little to watch the movie-like show from afar off. I was brave na, I had to joined the guy to remove life from the snake. I cut the snakes head while the other guy pinned it on the ground with the spade. Yeah, we are set to go home, time was around 6:00pm and the weather was closing to accept the night already. The guy that dug the whole tied it in his bicycle, displaying it for people to see and buy.. Yeah, We planned on selling the snake to any buyer and share the money, but we didn't see any buyer because it was night time already. We later gave it to the guy that dug it for him to enjoy because he's the only that eats snake. The snake was a very big one. I know he enjoyed himself that night. ***If you love snake, so sorry for making you to read about killing what you love. My apologies.*** ***Anyways, incase you're doubting whether the story is fictional or real, my dear it's real life experience 💯.*** ***Thanks for reading*** ***21st February 2022*** `I chose not to add a snake photo in order not the make it scary` Lead image source https://orientdailynews.com/life-style/agriculture/monoculture-planting-deforestation-wiping-off-nigerias-rain-forest-experts/