Kiprono and I were desk-mates in school. We were both interested in hunting deer.

We enjoyed it very much.

On weekends, we went hunting together with other boys from our village.

We were not always successful. On some days we managed to catch a fat deer while on other days, just a hare.

At times we would come back empty-handed.

When we caught deer, we would slaughter the animal and give some meat to our dogs to motivate them.

Our dogs enjoyed the meat, taking their time to chew it.

One day, we ventured deep into the forest. After an hour of hunting without success, we agreed to divide the group into two.

We took different paths. We agreed on where to meet after hunting.

We had only covered about twenty metres of our journey.

We heard Dunge, one of the boys who was behind, scream so loudly. We stopped to enquire.

Dunge was so shaken. He tried to speak but he could not. He pointed at his leg as he cried in pain.

Sakaja, the oldest of us, searched around and saw a very big snake slithering away into the bush.

We were so terrified.

Sakaja quickly tore up his shirt and tied Dunge's leg.

This action would prevent the blood from flowing back to the heart. This would give us time to get help for Dunge.

We carried Dunge shoulder-high back to the road. We needed to get him to the hospital.

We hiked a lift from a pickup truck. We managed to get to the hospital in time and our friend was attended to.

We went back home very shaken. Though we did not catch any animal that day, we were thankful that Dunge was safe.

Since that day, we stopped hunting. Now, we spent our free time in the fields grazing our goats and cows.