“Snakes!”

A small man covered in white powder, wearing a bright orange turban and robe, sauntered down the sidewalk in our community, a canvas sling bag full of snakes draped across his shoulder.

There was a reason for yelling about the snakes. He was intimidating people in order to get a little money. It worked particularly well with foreigners like me so I crossed the street when I saw him coming. I’m really not that fond of snakes.

He wasn’t supposed to be in our area and he knew it. It would only be a matter of time before the local police asked him to leave. It was a rare sight in our community to see someone doing this.

The first time it happened I was leaving a sidewalk to catch a taxi. In the same second I stepped between two parked cars, a cobra swiftly raised itself a few…