Day 8...snake attack!

A half day planned today, so spirits were higher than usual at breakfast. It was brick-moving as usual when we arrived at the site, but with a wheelbarrow and the new technique at our disposal, we looked likely to clear the pile by lunchtime. The heat was at its peak today and even the locals were at risk of breaking sweat! As we neared the bottom of the brick pile all sorts of creepy crawlies emerged; we saw beetles, centipedes, spiders and five more Wolf snakes.

Our experience with the snakes today was not as successful as the previous day, unfortunately. Nick Downs, attempting a one-handed pickup of one of the baby snakes with no gloves, sustained a bite to the hand. Not good. Then followed considerable discussion between the quickly fetched Jai, Johan, Ben, the boys and all the locals as to what the snake was and how to go about treating the bite. Antiseptic, lime, river water, black peppercorns (to test senses were still active) and even Rachel’s hair (used to search for broken fangs) were all used. Nick meanwhile remained very calm and seemingly unfazed, aside from filming the proceedings on his iPhone! Eventually we figured that the hospital was the only real option, so Hughes, Johan and Downs all set out to Thiruvella in the car. On arrival at the hospital we got a blood clotting test done – all clear. However, we had to wait for an hour until the next test, so we went over to Laila’s sisters house, where we looked through wedding albums, met the family, watched unintelligible TV, and ate tasty coconut sweets. We then returned for the next test: again, negative. We now had three hours to wait, so we returned to Jai’s for some much needed lunch.
The rest of the group then headed into Alleppey to purchase the ‘dohtees’ we would need for the dance on the final day, and Rachel was given a sari. At £2.00 each they were a total bargain, as well as making you look incredibly effeminate.

The hospital group, on the other hand, returned to Thiruvella for the third test. This took a while, not helped by having to consult a different doctor who was adamant that we should stay 24 hours, despite the negative result yet again. Hughes eventually came up with an acceptable plan to all: we would return to Kayaloram and would take Downs to Alleppey hospital if there was a problem. Free at last, we headed home. This was painfully slow. A huge traffic jam stalled us for near an hour in the pouring rain. We eventually made it home at 7pm, after dodging a police chase in the last few miles – very exciting!

After the boys had had some massages at the hotel’s spa centre, everyone chilled out on the waters edge with a guitar, flitting butterflies and lightning on the horizon. All then converged for dinner and the necessary practice of the group song, ‘Under the Bridge’ we will be singing at church tomorrow. Fingers crossed we get it right! What a day…