The Snake Incident

We came to Mexico from the United States of America because my dad is an archaeologist and is studying the Maya.  We live on a hacienda located near Espita, Yucatan.  A hacienda is like a ranch.  We have a couple of animals like sheep and chickens. Right now we are living in sort of a hut, but as soon as the workers finish fixing up this big house that is in ruin right now, we shall live there. This is how our trip has been so far:

It was the first day we were here.  My little brother Henry got bitten by a snake. 

What happened was we had just come back from swimming in a cenote, which is a cave filled with water, and Mary (my little sister) and Henry were playing by the water trough where the sheep drink.  They were trying to catch tadpoles (they were having no luck though), and the snake slithered out of a hole in the rocks.  We think Henry stepped on it.  It jumped up and bit him on his knee.  Mary ran for my parents and I honked the horn in the car.  When everyone was together, my dad called for Miguel, one of the workers, and he and a few other workers killed the snake.  We were told that it was not a rattlesnake, as we had all feared, but a snake pretending to be a rattlesnake.  We still went to the hospital, just in case.

 I had a feeling that Miguel was wrong because all people make a mistake once in their lives.  And so we drove to the hospital with Mary and I crying.  Halfway there we got a flat tire.  We were upset but we managed to get to a doctor and they confirmed that it was a “Cuatro Narices”, a Fer-de-Lance.  My brother took an ambulance to the hospital and we got a new tire.  Then we went to the hospital too and my brother was treated with antivenom.  After that my sister, my dad, and I had to stop back to where we were sleeping, the hacienda, to get some clothes for everyone because we would need to spend a couple of nights in Merida in a hotel. 

After that we got to visit my brother every few days and then one time a friend of my mother’s stopped over and invited us to spend the night at her house until Henry was cured.  And so we did and my aunt came from the United States to see us because Henry had been bitten by a snake. 

Now we are going to school at Instituto de Mexico in Tizimin.  This weekend we came back to Merida for Henry’s doctor checkup.  He is completely cured now.  Before, the snakebite had been purple and now you can’t find it.  We are all very happy that we have three children in this family- not two!  

Peking, Romania, and Iris

 

Snowflake & Quintin

My mother is now very careful about snakes and we got some ducks, which are supposed to get rid of snakes, and some tobacco, which helps too.  My mother fell in love with the ducks.  We named the ducks.  I named two because my mother couldn’t think of anything and she like my names:  Iris and Romania.  My dad named one Peking.  My sister named one Snowflake, and my brother named one Quintin.  We think they might be husband and wife.