Among my friends it’s common knowledge that I am able withstand crazy amounts of cuts, bruises, and injuries without complaint (except for that epic splinter one time – but Nick ended up agreeing that it was really big.)
So you can imagine how dire the situation was when I woke up in the middle of the night in searing agony. My running shoes had inflicted a large blister on the sole of my left foot which I had diligently ignored; trusting my body to take care of itself. When the blister burst I washed the area thoroughly but assumed the hole where it popped was too small for anything to enter.
I’ve been wrong before.
At 10pm I was limping all over the house, tears falling down my face.
I waited as long as I could. Braved it out. Acted tough.
But at 10:05pm I could stand no more — I broke down and called the Peace Corps nurses: Viola sleepily answered, calmly listened to my diagnosis, and verbally outlined the procedure.
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- Notice the dirt?
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- (This is embarassing; I thought my threshold for pain was much higher)
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- Complex medical procedures.
Two Tylenol, surgery-with-scissors, a bucket full of soapy water, q-tips, gauze, tape, and several exhausting hours later I had things under control. I know this because I was no longer crying.
Whilst busy congratulating myself on my first ever successful operation — not many doctors would have been able to complete these challenging incisions without amputating my foot — the biggest cockroach I have EVER SEEN ran across my floor. I glowered at it for ruining the imagines of clean, sanitary medical facilities in my mind and, heaving a sigh, did what every good patient does — gimped off to bed to get some rest.
Let’s see, what else?
In bug news:
– The mosquitoes are in attack mode. – it’s a myth that they are only out at certain times of the day.
– I had moths in my rice. They were flying around inside of a sealed bag. I felt very confused and disgusted since they probably laid moth larve that were the exact color of the long, brown rice grains. The dogs can eat ’em. I’ll cook it up later.
– This continual ant problem has those freaks crawling all over my dishes while they dry and I have 2 problems with this: (1) it sort of makes me feel like I need to wash my dishes again and (2) when I grab a pot and start boiling some water, a few ants stowaway somehow. This leads to me finding little ant corpses in my boiling water or tea. (that’s right, sometimes I don’t notice until the tea’s already been made. Yummy).
In activity news:
– I finished Shantaram and Gullivers Travels (I suggest the abridged version.)
– My Annual General Farmers Meeting went really well on Thursday! We opened with a prayer, reviewed the minutes, heard our committee report, listened to a guest speaker, entertained open dialogue and new issues, had elections, and ended with juice and bald cupcakes (Note: a cupcake without icing is a muffin and it was just wishful thinking on my part that they had, in fact, been cupcakes.)
– At a PTA meeting (that started 2.5 hours late) there were 14 mothers and 20 children all running around, crying, talking, playing, and breast feeding. At one point 2 men walked in and the room erupted into spontaneous applause with several of the women calling out “we have two daddy!” (which is not grammatically correct, but I can only be expected to do so much.). Imagine being a father who attends a PTA meeting and your mere presence inspires cheers and commotion. Bizarre.
– Also, I still sometimes pretend like I know what someone says when I don’t understand their patwa. My limit is three times of saying “eh??” before I say “alright.”
In other news:
I leave for AMERICA on TUESDAY.
My official countdown is less than 3 days!!!!
I’m psyched.
Mom, Dad (don’t be sleeping), and Nick are picking me up at the airport!
Until I see everyone, I’m going to be stalking you all on facebook.
Keeping it classy,
‘mi
Adventuresam 
Oh, Sammi, I’m so sorry to read about your blister, among the other things. It must have been terribly frustrating not to be able to chase down the large cockroach. But, I’m so glad you decided to call the nurse. Imagine, you learned how to deal with an infected blister. That is definitely something I think you will be able to use again sometime either for yourself or someone else. Please continue to take diligent care of it until healed. In the future, please remember a bacterium can get through the smallest hole (some can even make their own holes).
The day after tomorrow you will be landing in the U.S. of A., yea!! Can’t wait to see you and to love you.
Dad
Love love LOVE
Sammi!
You and your adventures! I know what you are talking about with trying to endure pain as long and hope and trust the body will heal itself. I’ve walked around for days without taking proper care of the corner i cut of my heal. Pretty painful but we have to keep going don’t we? Well take care of your foot! Have fun in the USA.
When i was in Trinidad we used to squeeze lime or lemon all over our sink to prevent ants. It’s natural and it helps!
Love,
Jolien
Jolien! You are so smart and full of fabulous ideas! Thanks for the lemon all of the sink input!! I will definitely have to try it!
I hope that you’re having an amazing time in India right now. I know I have a facebook message from you that deserves replying — soon come!
Lots of love,
‘mi
Sammi…I really love reading your blog’s. It’s always so enlightening and entertaining. I love the way you write. It takes me right into your world. I can see you have really learned a lot and have adapted so much more. I’m also really proud that you have now become a bonifide surgeon. 😉 Congrats on the work you are doing and sorry about the bugs.
Have a safe trip home and enjoy the family. Love you!
Love!! Thanks for the positive feedback!!!!!!
What? Are you leaig Jamaica? and I just found you. I was looking forward to following your stories. Hope your blister heals up fast and I guess I’ll be checking out your past blogs. Good luck.
I was just leaving for a brief amount of time! I’m back — and working on a new blog post 🙂 Even though I’ll be posting current ones it’s a great idea to read my past ones (nudge nudge wink wink) — thanks for reading and commenting! 🙂