real live

yesterday, i came up to my classroom to drop some stuff off in it.

often, geckos like to hide in the space between the door and the door frame.

so it's not uncommon for them to scurry away as i unlock and open the door.

the same thing happened yesterday.

one was in the space between the bottom of the door and the floor.

and as i opened the door, he scurried off into the corner of the classroom.

i saw just a flash of his tail out of the corner of my eye.

and i thought to myself, "that is a HUGE gecko!"

so i peeked under the desk to get a better look at it.

and what should i find but a very..... angry..... SNAKE!

so i took a picture.

then i went and told yohanes.
he came and looked at it too.
then he called one of the grounds guys over.
he ran off to get something to catch it with.
and he came back with a 10 inch piece of wood and an empty water bottle.
it seems that his method of taking care of the snake was to use the piece of wood to chase it into the water bottle.
not happening.
the snake got really angry and coiled and struck at him several times, mouth wide open and hissing.

i took more pictures.

after about 10 minutes of this, the guy must have decided that the best course of action was to at least get it out of the classroom.
so he chased it out, and continued trying to catch it outside.
shortly, a jaga walked by.
our jagas might not be the most well armed guards in the world, but they all carry some vicious looking daggers.
so mr jaga walked over, whipped out his knife, and in one fell swoop, that snake was history.

i took another picture.

the snake was not all that big.
but in a country where something like 98% of them are poisonous....
well, i was healthily wary.
this was, in fact, a landmark achievement for me.
it was the first time i have seen a live snake and not tried to catch it myself.

EDIT: i showed this picture to an indonesian friend who says this is a cobra.

poisonous, but not highly.