cobra, the other other white..er.. meat

So I just got back from my market. It is another scorching hot day, well actaully, scratch that, it is pretty overcast and relatively cool, only in the 90's. Anyway, I am handing out my market buys to my host mom to cook up for dinner when I hear this giant explosion about 50 yards away. At first I think nothing of it, some of the kids who are playing cards jump a little then look at me to say that someone shot off a gun, a little close perhaps, but otherwise nothing too remarkable. Thinking nothing of it I head back to my hut to drop off my backpack and put my bike away, returning to my host family's house I see a gaggle of men standing outside my concession underneath a tree. Going over there I more or less figure that they just killed a goat or sheep which is always nice because it means extra meat for dinner, and I had decided only to buy rice at market and therefore meat was definitely desirable. However, as I get closer I notice neither animal nor knife, instead, a cekoroba (old man) comes up to me and says, "a be gorongo faga" Confused at first I search my memory bank for the word gorongo, its not one used normally, until I remember that it means cobra. Then I direct my eyes to the ground where the entire scene finally makes sense, jerkily moving on the ground is a five foot black cobra, over it stands madu with an old double barrel shotgun. Ba has just finished cutting off the head of the cobra and is now placing it on a stick, for what reasons I am still not sure, probably something related to Malian math. So I am a little freaked out, I have dealt with scorpions and non poisonous snakes so far but a 5 foot cobra next to my concession, well it sort of freaked me out. However, keeping my cool I look at Ba and ask, "hey, are we going to eat it or what" To which he replies, "absolutely". So after boiling it for an hour or so I am handed a couple of pieces of cobra meat with the black skin still on. Now I know that it has been said before, but cobra really does taste like chicken, and with the ribs and everything it almost tastes like pork ribs. Of course I had to get over the idea that I was eating osmething that an hour ago could have bitten me something fierce, it was overall and enjoyable experience. They kept telling me to eat the skin to which I did, and found it to be exactly like chicken skin, making me wodner why they liked it so much. The only really funny thing about this whole exchange was when I asked them why kids aren't allowed to eat snake. Apparently snake gets caught in their teeth and then the adults have to pick it out. When I pointed out that all meat here gets stuck in ones teeth, they finally admitted it was because they don't want kids to know that snakes and cobra especially taste good for fear that the kids will spend their time trying to find and hunt cobras in the bruce. Overall I thought that was a pretty good idea.