Unawatuna

This weekend was really eventful. But, first, make sure my mom doesn't read this. She will hear everything in good time, but I really don't want her worrying about me any more than she already is. (Obvious foreshadowing)

I had my first day at the hospital on Friday. The hospital is crowded and filthy. I remember thinking how I wish I never had to lay in one of those beds because they look really dirty. (Foreshadowing #2) Lauren described it as "The most soul-destroying place I've ever been." I'm learning a lot at the hospital and getting to see some things that I definitely would not get to see here.

This weekend we went to Unawatuna, which is a resort town south of where I'm staying. The bus ride down there was 2 hours and I stood for most of it or sat on a metal bar which made my arse hurt a lot. The rooms where we stayed were less than $20 a night and they were right on the ocean, and had AC and hot water. I know, we splurged. I shared a room with two of the girls and apparently I kick in the night. Friday I met a bunch of the other volunteers, everyone but the girl I live with and me are from the UK, Lisette is Dutch. Jackie started calling me Turk because she initially thought it was my name backwards, but now it's kinda stuck. She also watches Scrubs, so it's cool from that angle too. I went ankle deep in the ocean just to see how it was on Friday. Since I was wearing leather Gap sandals, the water weakened then and they broke soon after. (1) They were probably made here anyway, so it's only fitting that they died in their homeland. We drank at the hotel that night and then danced at the restaurant, which was fun. They had a drink here called Arrack which tastes like really smooth Brandy. I'll be getting some to bring home. Saturday we swam most of the day and went shopping. It was cloudy, so I didn't get burned or anything, so that was kinda nice. The Indian Ocean is much rougher than the Atlantic or Pacific, but it was fun. That night we all had dinner, celebrated Sam's birthday, and drank again. We did some karaoke at the restaurant bar and hung out. It was a good time. It started pouring rain at one point, so we went out into it for fun. We went down by the ocean and it stole one of the sandals I bought that day. (2) (I gave the Irish goodbye that night, but I made it safely back to the room, or close enough) The next day I had to buy another pair of sandals and make a trip to the bank because one of the girls had her purse stolen, which really sucks for her because all of her stuff was in there. We swam and hung out some more on Sunday and also went to a sea turtle refuge. They let you hold the 2 week old baby turtles, so I have pictures of that. I love countries with no rules. We then headed back around 4:30. It gets completely dark here by 6:30, so by the end of the bus ride back it was pitch black. There are also very few street lights.

Now the fun part. So there are open drains/gutters/sewers full of garbage and grey water that run all over Panadura. It makes the city smell awful. There are concrete slabs over some of these drains, but many of them are open, or just missing random slabs. We got off the bus and were talking for a bit and making sure we had everything before heading home. As we left, the first step I took was into the gutter because a slab was missing. I went, full weight into the next concrete slab with my shin, my hip hit the side and, as I caught myself, my feet just touched the water. I managed to catch myself before fully falling in, but it was still chest high. I pulled myself out and the first thing I said was, "I'm so pissed I lost another shoe." (3) Then I got dizzy, sat down and fainted on the sidewalk. They said I was out for about a minute and when I came to, I had no idea where I was, what I was doing, or how I got there. I was with 4 girls I've known for less than a week, so I didn't recognize anyone. After about a minute, I started remembering where I was and looked at my leg. There is a giant chunk out of my shin (it's still kinda bleeding, and this is about a day later.) There are two more scraped on my shin and both my feet have scrapes all over them, as does my elbow. My hip has a pretty good bruise on it and it hurts when I walk. Anyway, I'm laying on the sidewalk and a small crowd of locals is gathering wanting to help the pretty white girls, two of which are freaking out. I saw that I didn't need stitches, but I needed to go to the hospital. Thankfully it was a block away so I'm now entering soul-destroying Panadura hospital with a leg covered in blood. As I was waiting to be seen, there was a guy on a stretcher (all stainless steel gurney) with the end of his arm wrapped. I don't say "hand" because his hand was in a bucket that was on the gurney with him. Anyway, his need was greater than mine, so they took him off to surgery. I was then seen (Jackie accidentally told them my name was Turk) and brought into a room that I would not like to have eaten a meal in, let alone have a wound dressed. There was a gecko on the wall. This guy cleaned it with iodine and put some really ghetto bandages on it. Actually, ghetto is too nice. The best adjective is "broke-ass". I still don't feel like I can walk, so they got me one of those awesome steel gurneys and took me to a ward. Yep, they put me in one of those beds I never wanted to lay in. Two of the girls stayed with me and came into the ward, which, being an all guys ward, raised morale enough to save at least 2 lives. They had a nice fan club gathering nearby the whole time I was there. They asked if I wanted to wait for the doctor (he was in surgery reattaching a hand), and I said no, I just want to lie down for a bit. My host dad came to see me, which was really nice and he talked to the people there for us. We left after about a half hour. I'll post pictures of the wounds and the gutter I fell in eventually. I'm obsessively cleaning my wounds because I don't want it to get infected. They're still really gross.

Thanks for reading this really long post, I hope it was as entertaining for you as it was for my leg. I managed to lose 3 pairs of shoes in 3 days, which I think is some kinda of a record. I'll have to look it up. I'm off to buy bandanges and alcohol for my wounds. Keep reading the blog because you know it's only going to get better.


Kurt