Friday, May 27, 2011

Embarrassment and Pain

Yesterday we had some donors from Chile come visit our community center to check up on some of the building projects they had funded. Somehow I got roped into showing them around one of neighborhoods where 22 families had been chosen to augment their one-room homes into 2-room homes. This is an area on a hillside, and when we were descending said hill on some questionable gravel-like conditions I was thinking to myself, "I hope nobody takes a digger", when the ground beneath me gave way and I found myself going in slow motion down . . .down . . . down. I am not that tall, but it just seemed to take forever to stick my hands out to take the impact instead of my backside. And what I nice surprise awaited me there! Yes, my friends, one of my hands landed in a plant that was nothing but 'espinas', or needles/thorns.

I didn't even notice (at first) because I was horrified to have fallen down in front of witnesses. I jumped right up again and tried to laugh it off. When I dusted my hands off on my pants, I encountered pain - and after looking at my right hand, I freaked out! I had a dozen or more espinas lodged in my skin. I picked out as many as I could right away, but there were at least 6 that were embedded deeply. One of my coworkers was there and after being assured I was all right, he started in on how the plant I fell on was poisonous, and that I was going to lose my hand if I didn't get the rest of the splinters out. Very nice. (He was kidding, of course.) I went home and soaked my hand in warm saltwater for 30 minutes to no avail. Those things weren't moving, but I tried a home remedy I read online, where a baking soda paste is supposed to help speed up the process of expelling splinters, etc. Today I woke up and my hand was still intact, but the entry sites of the splinters were swollen and red. I went into work today and two of my coworkers decided to 'help' me by picking the needles out with their fingernails and what was probably a un-sanitized pin. It was highly painful and effective. I am now left wondering if I have an infected hand. . .  Hm. Thank God for tetanus shots!

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