There's the story of Adam, Eve and the serpent in The Garden of Eden, then there's our story of two serpents in our neighbour's compound:
Here's The Story Of Adam, Eve And The Serpent:
1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God (YAHWEH Elohim) had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God (Elohim) indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?"
2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God (Elohim) has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'"
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. 5 For God (Elohim) knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God (Elohim), knowing good and evil."
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:1-6, NKJV)
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%203&version=NKJV
Here's Our Story:
We were living in Nanyuki, Kenya and our neighbour had a beautiful loquat tree in their yard. They were never home, the place was deserted and empty, and the loquats would fall to the ground and rot. The entire compound was fenced off and the gate at the driveway was closed and locked. There was a sign on the gate that read, "Trespassers will be prosecuted".
My mum had told us not to go over there, not to climb over the fence and not to eat the fruit. But it was one of my favourite fruits and it would simply rot on the ground, no one was home to pick it.
So one day, my younger brother Joseph, some friends and I went to the neighbour's compound, climbed over the gate, walked down the long driveway, climbed up the loquat tree and ate the loquats. They were delicious.
Suddenly, two large snakes, perhaps pythons (I'm not really sure), made their way down the driveway towards the loquat tree. We freaked out, panicked, ran past the snakes all the way back down the driveway, over the gate, all the way home screaming hysterically.
When we got home, we told mum everything. While she was concerned, I think she laughed because the whole situation was quite comical - a bunch of children jumping up and down in fear, excitement, guilt and honesty. We were scared, but safe. I don't think we ever went back to the loquat tree.
Copyright © 2013, Carter Kagume. All Rights Reserved.
