Photo of the day

Tagaytay City pineapples. . .

Shown here is a pineapple field across from a school I visited in the Philippines. I have to say that the pineapples from this part of the Philippines were the sweetest I tasted. In fact, pineapples from the Philippines are the best I've had. I took this picture last August, a few days before I traveled back to Canada. Something else from this area that was great are mangos. They're absolutely incredible. At one place I would go for mango smoothies. I actually went so many times, they started making them as soon as I walked through the door. I'm kind of predictable in some ways - or many I guess.

This pineapple field actually reminds me of a story. It's a rather usual story about - what else, a snake. . .

On one occasion, I was walking back to the school from a little store around the corner where the teachers would gather and talk about the day. Like many of its kind, it was set into the house of a local woman and offered everything from soft drinks to laundry detergent. These little family run businesses are common and appear to be an integral part of Filipino society. Too bad we don't have them in Canada - rather then the generic convenience stores that have as much feeling as a brick.
As I trudged back up the hill, I saw two Filipino men struggling with what appeared to be a really thick road like the ones you'd see securing large boats to wharves. When I got up to them, I realized it was, in fact, a python snake that they had just captured in a nearby pineapple field. The snake was about 3 metres long and looked pretty powerful.
Unfortunately we had a difficult time trying to understand each other, due to the language barrier, but after a while I came to understand how and where they had come to capture the animal. I also figured out they were in the process of twisting it in an attempt to kill it - something that eventually occurred with the snapping of its bones.
Given the fact they didn’t speak English and I don’t speak Tagalog, it was hard to convey my thoughts about how I felt about the killing of this snake, and that I was positive there would've been a more humane way in which to kill it - like if they had used a machete.
It was pointed out that this snake wasn’t killed for sport, rather it was that night’s supper. After bidding adieu, I shook my head, thinking on that day I was glad I wasn’t that snake. Then again, I'm glad I'm not a deer or a moose or any other animal that Canadians deem worth the effort to track down in the bush and kill, perhaps not in the same manner as twisting, but killing all the same.