Less Than A Moment

By Joe Hammons

In your mind’s eye, travel to the west coast of Africa and find a country so small, the tip of your finger would cover it. Marvel at the beautiful beaches of Sierra Leone where the water is warm enough to stay in all day. Leaving the capital city of Freetown, make your way through the tropical rain forest 167 miles into the southern part of the country just seven degrees above the equator to a village called Gerihun.
Walking through Gerihun, you can see mud houses with thatched or tin roofs, no electricity, no running water into huts, banana, orange, mango, coconut, and grapefruit trees, pineapple plants, and rice. The village has about 300 inhabitants, one church, a school for boys on one side of town and a school for girls on the other side. We were Peace Corps volunteers in a village that was always friendly toward us.
My wife and I were returning to Gerihun from a walking visit to a new school three miles away where we had worked with two teachers. We decided to take a shortcut through tall grass along a narrow dirt path about two feet wide. I was walking ahead at a leisurely pace.
During the time when my right leg went up and I completed just one step, less than a Moment, I saw a green flash move perpendicular from its beginning to its end right in front of my shoe before my right foot hit the ground. It was a green mamba . It is known that mambas have attacked humans without any provocation. I had miraculously not stepped on one. It would have killed us both! No matter how many years have gone by, when I recall almost stepping on a family member of the most dangerous snakes in the world, I break out in a cold sweat. My two children would not exist and I wouldn’t have been able to teach at a wonderful elementary school for over 29 years.

---