It’s an animal term, it’s also a gambling term.

So before I left everyone kept telling me to be careful of snakes. I must say I was a bit nervous when I would hike up the mountains walking through tall grass in shorts. Probably not my best move. Little did I know that the first steps right outside the front door are much more treacherous. I guess now is a good time to introduce you all to Mr. Puff Adder. Niel (pictured above) and his wife Alece were a little surprised to find this fellow sitting right outside their front door the other day. Alece stayed calm like all women do in this situation and Niel, like every man went running for a weapon. Everyone made it out ok, but I decided to see what we were up against.

He must have been lost
Most bites to humans occur because the Puff Adder is common near human habitation, it frequently basks on or near foot paths, and when approached it will remain motionless relying on its camouflage to avoid detection. It gets its name from its habit of inflating its body and emitting a deep, low warning hiss to warn intruders to stay away. It’s also one of the three largest vipers of Africa. Crap.

Looks Slow
The Puff Adder is a very slow moving, lethargic snake that doesn’t move around very much, however, it is capable of short bursts of speed when attempting to escape. Regardless of its normal sluggishness, the Puff Adder is one of the fastest striking snakes in the world. Crap.

Harmless
The Puff Adder has a very well developed venom delivery system. The approximate lethal dose of venom for humans is 100mg. and from 100-350mg. may be injected in a single bite. The symptoms of Puff Adder envenomation may include: intense pain, massive swelling, abdominal cramping, high fever, the victim may go in and out of shock, breathing may become increasingly difficult, there is usually extensive subcutaneous bruising and blood blisters form rapidly. Death has occurred in under thirty-minutes from intravenous injection of venom, resulting in catastrophic circulatory collapse. Death sometimes occurs from anaphylactic shock or organ failure due to the extensive swelling. Oh, crap.

So yea, this is no garden snake.

With a little help from Tom Rossi in Jacksonville, you can now call a local Jacksonville phone number and my cell phone in Africa will ring. We have a fancy phone system at Capernaum (where I worked in Jax) that will forward your call to me using a phone card.

Jacksonville residents and people with free nationwide calling don’t pay a dime for the call and since it’s using my calling card it’s cheap for me. I’m eagerly waiting to hear from all of you, so please if you want to chat about anything feel free to give me a call. Remember

Instructions:
1. Phone Number: 904-224-4419
2. You should hear my name: “Dave Ditges”
3. Press “7″
4. You will hear the stats for my calling card. Sometimes it could take 30 seconds to ring my phone.

Remember, I am 7 hours ahead of most of you, so the best time for people to call me is between 5 PM - 10PM Africa time, that’s 10 AM to 3 PM EST.

While we were in town this weekend I had some extra time to do some exploring and I stumbled across this local fast food place. I was in a crazy mood and felt like trying something new and daring, so I starting browsing their menu. Then, I got that weird feeling you get when you know someone is looking at you. I turned around, but no one was around me, well none that were paying any attention to me. So, again I starting looking through the menu, and then out of the corner of my eye I saw what had been staring at me. It was something I had only dreamed of seeing while I was in Africa. There it was in all its glory, “Today’s Special - Chicken Fingers”. My heart leapt, or was it my stomach. I don’t know and frankly I didn’t care. All I knew was that I was having chicken fingers and a Coke for lunch on that day. That glorious day.

Running with the bulls, climbing Mt Everest and sailing across the world are just a few of the things I’ll probably never got to do in my lifetime. I recognize those things are a bit out of reach so it felt pretty good when I did something I never thought I would do.

So, the property has two 4-wheelers, as well as wild animals all over the property and today I decided to make use of both. As I’m riding on the 4-wheeler I spot some Zebra and Wildebeest off in the distance. As I get closer they notice me and start to move on. We play this game for a little while, until I find myself surprisingly close to them. At this time the animals starting to move faster, so I to begin to pick up speed and before I knew it I was “running with them”. Ok, not so much running, but I was keeping up with the pack as they ran.

The experience only lasted for a little bit, but it truly was amazing after I was done and realized most people will never experience this. Hey, one of the mountains on the property is named Mt Everest, maybe I will get to climb it after all.

Webster’s defines being patient as, “enduring trying circumstances with even temper”. I have learned this all to well over here. Please keep me in your prayers.