Today they removed maggots from a wound in a woman's foot. I walked into the mini OR after lunch and looked at this wound. It was already covered with Iodine, so it was all brown, so it just looked like all the other injuries. Then the doctor says, "There are maggots in the wound." I didn't stand really close to that one, but I watched as he pulled more than 15 maggots out of this cut. In the end her nail was removed and there was a pretty big hole in her toe. But no maggots. I went out and bought more alcohol for my leg after seeing that.
Some guy cut the tip of his finger mostly off on a table saw and was just standing there waiting to be seen with nothing on it. I was hoping someone would put pressure on that, but no. Another guy had a huge slash across his palm and just had to wait in line to get it stitched. Do they not understand what an ER is for? Apparently not because today a woman came in bleeding all over her stretcher. She was in a car accident and one leg had compound fractures in both her bottom leg bones. Just to make that clear, her tibia and fibula were sticking out of her skin and bleeding on the gurney. She was just sent to the ward, no need to bother the ER.
I'll be in the Carido-Thoracic Unit tomorrow. This may be the best place yet, and for no medical reasons. I'll be part of CTU tomorrow. Best. Day. Ever. They do open heart surgeries, so that should be fun. We'll see how well I cope.
They removed a sea urchin barb from the foot on a monk. That could only happen in this country.
The doctor had to change his shoes today because blood got all over them.
The doctor also doesn't wear gloves to give injections, just when he's actually cutting. The orderlies don't wear gloves when they're dressing some wounds too. I think I should mention how some diseases are spread.
Monday, November 26, 2007
English People
I spend a lot of my time here with English people, so here's a post about them.
They'll immediately correct me by saying that they're not all "English". Some of them are from Wales (which apparently is its own country...) or Scotland or England. The phrase "Great Britain" includes all of those places, but not Northern Ireland. You need to say "United Kingdom" to include all of their land.
They measure speed in mph, distance in miles and feet. If they're measuring something exactly, they'll use cm, though. They use the Celsius temperature scale.
Now, to weigh people, they use stone. Really. A stone is about 6.5 kg, but trying to figure out how much someone weighs is ridiculous because I have to do two conversions. Stone? Are you kidding me? Is it the 1300's? Am I going to get the plague from being around you?
Defeating a greyhound dog being hit by a bus in the irony competition, I celebrated Thanksgiving dinner with three English people. I was thankful for the pilgrims leaving England.
A conversation with Alex:
Alex: "So, when you go to Hawaii, do you need a passport?"
Me: "You know Hawaii's a state, right?"
A: "Yeah, but it's not connected."
K:"No, you don't need a passport."
A: "What if you're already in the country as a foreigner, then do you need one?"
K: "No, they already checked you when you came in the first time."
A: "So you could just get in and then go anywhere? Why don't people just fly to Hawaii then go to the mainland without being checked?"
K: "You're checked when you fly into Hawaii, it has the same standards as everywhere else."
A: "Yeah, but it's an island, so it's gotta be easy to get in."
K: *blank stare*
I make a lot of puns, as usual. Sam makes them, too, but Cat thinks they're ridiculous. She did laugh at the seal pun, but that was hilarious. Anyway, we were at the top of this old fortress that used to have a stone lion carving. She was trying to get a picture but there were people in the way. She says, "I guess I'll have to lie in wait..." She was so mad I corrupted her into making puns.
We were playing a game and I said, "Big money, big money, no whammy, no whammy, STOP!" Then I said, "I really shouldn't have pressed my luck with that reference." It was awesome. Nobody got it...
They'll immediately correct me by saying that they're not all "English". Some of them are from Wales (which apparently is its own country...) or Scotland or England. The phrase "Great Britain" includes all of those places, but not Northern Ireland. You need to say "United Kingdom" to include all of their land.
They measure speed in mph, distance in miles and feet. If they're measuring something exactly, they'll use cm, though. They use the Celsius temperature scale.
Now, to weigh people, they use stone. Really. A stone is about 6.5 kg, but trying to figure out how much someone weighs is ridiculous because I have to do two conversions. Stone? Are you kidding me? Is it the 1300's? Am I going to get the plague from being around you?
Defeating a greyhound dog being hit by a bus in the irony competition, I celebrated Thanksgiving dinner with three English people. I was thankful for the pilgrims leaving England.
A conversation with Alex:
Alex: "So, when you go to Hawaii, do you need a passport?"
Me: "You know Hawaii's a state, right?"
A: "Yeah, but it's not connected."
K:"No, you don't need a passport."
A: "What if you're already in the country as a foreigner, then do you need one?"
K: "No, they already checked you when you came in the first time."
A: "So you could just get in and then go anywhere? Why don't people just fly to Hawaii then go to the mainland without being checked?"
K: "You're checked when you fly into Hawaii, it has the same standards as everywhere else."
A: "Yeah, but it's an island, so it's gotta be easy to get in."
K: *blank stare*
I make a lot of puns, as usual. Sam makes them, too, but Cat thinks they're ridiculous. She did laugh at the seal pun, but that was hilarious. Anyway, we were at the top of this old fortress that used to have a stone lion carving. She was trying to get a picture but there were people in the way. She says, "I guess I'll have to lie in wait..." She was so mad I corrupted her into making puns.
We were playing a game and I said, "Big money, big money, no whammy, no whammy, STOP!" Then I said, "I really shouldn't have pressed my luck with that reference." It was awesome. Nobody got it...
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
RTA and Relaxing Weekend (Post 2 of 2)
When we went on the safai, this random dog followed us the entire time. We named him Steven and he trotted behind our jeep for hours. We fed him some sandwiches because he was working hard. Even if we drove too fast for him and lost him, he always caught up in the end. I think he was training for a marathon or something.
Last week Wednesday we went 2 hours north to Panadura to have dinner for Jackie's last night. It was a fun evening and 3 of us that live down here stayed until 11ish. We caught a random bus that took us to a larger town that was 20 mins away, but we couldn't find another bus. So, some random tuk tuk driver pulls up and asks where we're going. Galle is 65km from where we were, so that's quite a drive. He goes into some speech about how expensive petrol is and how it's 130 total kilometers drive for him and then proceeds to ask for 1,000 rupees for the trip. That's about $9. We were like, ok. Then some random cops pull up and talk to him. He turns around and says, "Ok, 1,300 rupees." We were still fine with that. So we set off at about midnight at this point to drive almost half way across the country. We were stoopped at every police checkpoint and they all gave the same surprised expression when he told them where he was going. They checked the tuk tuk and saw white people, so it was cool. About 20 mins from our destination, 1:30am, Sam sees something up ahead and says, "Whoa" I look up and there are about 30 Sri Lankans running in the street screaming. It looked like a scene out of a horror film. Everyone was yelling and running towards us. I look to my right and see a boy laying unconscious under a motor bike. There is a random empty helmet in the middle of the road and there is no driver. As we're driving, people surround our tuk tuk and start banging on the roof trying to get us to stop. I was sure that I was going to be pulled out onto the street. Our driver swerved to miss the guys trying to block us and sped off. He said, "Bad things happen if you stop." We've all been told stories about stopping for accidents because the police arrest you and hold you if you're there. There was also an unfriendly mob that would probably have stolen the tuk tuk. I felt bad leaving, but there wasn't much we could do and it would have been very unsafe.
Friday we went up to Hikkaduwa for swimming and relaxation. After a bit of settling in, a bunch of us jump in the ocean. It's November and we can swim, it's great. We start swimming out for a bit and then look back towards shore. Shore is very far away and there's a strong current going out. We realize this and start to swim back. It is not easy. I'm not a good swimmer, but the other people are struggling, too. I'm swimming, but I can feel myself being pushed out still. I'm actually starting to get worried. After about 5 minutes I can see that I'm making some progress towards shore. I'm getting tired, but I know that I can keep up that level of exertion if I had to. (I did have to.) So after about 10 minutes or so I can touch ground and get onto the shore. I swallowed quite a bit of seawater, but I managed not to puke. I may take swimming lessons when I get home. That night, we had a bonfire on the beach and vodka that tasted like acetone. It was awful. Drunken revelry ensued. No broken ankles or almost killing Marieke this time, though.
We hung aroud on Saturday then went down to Unawatuna beach and drank some more. I was in a "Kurt is not happy to be drunk" mood, exacerbated by my trying to find the Australians while walking on sharp rocks for 15 minutes. I Irish Goodbye. A bunch of us ended up falling asleep on beach chaird until Momma Cat told us all to go to bed.
The next day I woke up at like 7 and went for a morning swim. We played a game of volleyball on the beach with people from 5 different countries (America, France, England, Germany, Netherlands). We then had a mini UN meeting. Later in the day I went to go talk to Milly, who was laying on the beach where the waves were crashing. We're chatting and she says that she has sand everywhere. "It's dowm my shorts, it's in my bikini." It's at this moment where I see an opportunity that cannot be passed up. It's like being offered a ride in Santa's sleigh, you just have to take it. I put on my best Cartman voice and say, "Oh, so you have some sand in your vagina." She was less than amused, but it was completely worth it. (Bonus points for the South Park fans who recognized the phrase "Broflovski's Disease") Some of the people went snorkeling, which I'll do at a later weekend. I did some cheer moves with the girls in the ocean, which always makes the locals happy. We had lunch at this place that has pizza. I ordered the "Beefy Bacon" pizza. I think they have that just for the American tourists.
The girl in my facebook picture is Milly. Emily Jane Cowan. Feel free to send her messages inquiring about Broflovski's.
We all drink bottled water here because the tap water is full of terrorists. On the water, it says "Do not accept if seal is broken." They also have that warning at zoos.
I'm in the mini surgery theatre right now, which is pretty cool. I'm doing better not feeling faint, but we'll see how that holds when I see open heart surgery in a few weeks. I think I'll be able to stomach the gastro surgeries though....
Save the cheerleader, save the world.
-Kurt
Last week Wednesday we went 2 hours north to Panadura to have dinner for Jackie's last night. It was a fun evening and 3 of us that live down here stayed until 11ish. We caught a random bus that took us to a larger town that was 20 mins away, but we couldn't find another bus. So, some random tuk tuk driver pulls up and asks where we're going. Galle is 65km from where we were, so that's quite a drive. He goes into some speech about how expensive petrol is and how it's 130 total kilometers drive for him and then proceeds to ask for 1,000 rupees for the trip. That's about $9. We were like, ok. Then some random cops pull up and talk to him. He turns around and says, "Ok, 1,300 rupees." We were still fine with that. So we set off at about midnight at this point to drive almost half way across the country. We were stoopped at every police checkpoint and they all gave the same surprised expression when he told them where he was going. They checked the tuk tuk and saw white people, so it was cool. About 20 mins from our destination, 1:30am, Sam sees something up ahead and says, "Whoa" I look up and there are about 30 Sri Lankans running in the street screaming. It looked like a scene out of a horror film. Everyone was yelling and running towards us. I look to my right and see a boy laying unconscious under a motor bike. There is a random empty helmet in the middle of the road and there is no driver. As we're driving, people surround our tuk tuk and start banging on the roof trying to get us to stop. I was sure that I was going to be pulled out onto the street. Our driver swerved to miss the guys trying to block us and sped off. He said, "Bad things happen if you stop." We've all been told stories about stopping for accidents because the police arrest you and hold you if you're there. There was also an unfriendly mob that would probably have stolen the tuk tuk. I felt bad leaving, but there wasn't much we could do and it would have been very unsafe.
Friday we went up to Hikkaduwa for swimming and relaxation. After a bit of settling in, a bunch of us jump in the ocean. It's November and we can swim, it's great. We start swimming out for a bit and then look back towards shore. Shore is very far away and there's a strong current going out. We realize this and start to swim back. It is not easy. I'm not a good swimmer, but the other people are struggling, too. I'm swimming, but I can feel myself being pushed out still. I'm actually starting to get worried. After about 5 minutes I can see that I'm making some progress towards shore. I'm getting tired, but I know that I can keep up that level of exertion if I had to. (I did have to.) So after about 10 minutes or so I can touch ground and get onto the shore. I swallowed quite a bit of seawater, but I managed not to puke. I may take swimming lessons when I get home. That night, we had a bonfire on the beach and vodka that tasted like acetone. It was awful. Drunken revelry ensued. No broken ankles or almost killing Marieke this time, though.
We hung aroud on Saturday then went down to Unawatuna beach and drank some more. I was in a "Kurt is not happy to be drunk" mood, exacerbated by my trying to find the Australians while walking on sharp rocks for 15 minutes. I Irish Goodbye. A bunch of us ended up falling asleep on beach chaird until Momma Cat told us all to go to bed.
The next day I woke up at like 7 and went for a morning swim. We played a game of volleyball on the beach with people from 5 different countries (America, France, England, Germany, Netherlands). We then had a mini UN meeting. Later in the day I went to go talk to Milly, who was laying on the beach where the waves were crashing. We're chatting and she says that she has sand everywhere. "It's dowm my shorts, it's in my bikini." It's at this moment where I see an opportunity that cannot be passed up. It's like being offered a ride in Santa's sleigh, you just have to take it. I put on my best Cartman voice and say, "Oh, so you have some sand in your vagina." She was less than amused, but it was completely worth it. (Bonus points for the South Park fans who recognized the phrase "Broflovski's Disease") Some of the people went snorkeling, which I'll do at a later weekend. I did some cheer moves with the girls in the ocean, which always makes the locals happy. We had lunch at this place that has pizza. I ordered the "Beefy Bacon" pizza. I think they have that just for the American tourists.
The girl in my facebook picture is Milly. Emily Jane Cowan. Feel free to send her messages inquiring about Broflovski's.
We all drink bottled water here because the tap water is full of terrorists. On the water, it says "Do not accept if seal is broken." They also have that warning at zoos.
I'm in the mini surgery theatre right now, which is pretty cool. I'm doing better not feeling faint, but we'll see how that holds when I see open heart surgery in a few weeks. I think I'll be able to stomach the gastro surgeries though....
Save the cheerleader, save the world.
-Kurt
Monday, November 19, 2007
Horton Plains, Safari, and The Bus (1 of 2)
Here are the details from 2 weekends ago, late, but still funny.
We went to Horton Plains, which is a national park with some waterfalls and this place called World's End where you can see a nice view of the valley and take some great pictures. (Random interruption: the guy next to me at the internet cafe is looking at porn and it's kinda disturbing.) We all met in Panadura because it's a central meeting point. It also means that I have to travel 2 hours before we even leave for the place. We meet up and leave an hour later than planned, but that's expected. Anyway, we begin our 7 hour drive and have to stop and ask for directions after 20 mins. We turn around (Bright eyes!) A little later we start playing mafia. It's fun for a while, but we keep playing anyway, even after the 17th round. We get lost and have to turn around. More mafia. We stop again and ask for directions. It begins to rain. "How much time till we get there?" "2 hours." 4 hours later, we arrive at our hotel. We have some beers and eat dinner. More beers. We have to be up at 5am the next day so we can get to the park early enough to see the view at World's End. We go to sleep. We all wake up. Some of us look like death. We get all of our stuff on the bus. The bus won't start. We wait. Then we need to push start the bus. At 5:30 in the morning. There's video and pictures somewhere of us all pushing this bus in a tiny parking lot trying to get it to start. 45 minutes later the bus is ready to go. We leave for the park and spirits are high. We get lost twice for almost 2 hours on the way to the park. We do finally get to the park around 9:30. The hike wasn't too bad and there are some cool waterfalls, but not much wildlife. When we finally got to World's End, it was completely covered with fog. I have some pictures of the fog. Apparently we only missed (mist, haha) the view by a half hour. We hike back and are ready for more bus riding.
During the trip to the hotel for the night, we stop to eat at this extremely Sri Lankan town. This would be like stopping at a little gas station in the South. That place has never seen outsiders and they don't like our kind. Also, the bathroom looked like it hadn't been cleaned since it was built. It was also the only one in this town. I actually was curious to see if there was a cleaner one, so I asked almost every shop. Only one bathroom. After eating we drive another 6 hours to our hotel. More beers and dinner. I had a nice chat with one of the new girls, Milly (nickname from Emily). We talked for a while, she's a lot of fun. I'll reference her in the next post with having Broflovski's disease. End scene.
That night one of the guys, Gentle Ben, got a call from home saying that his dad is really ill. He ended up flying home and is still there now. He and his family could use any prayers.
The next day we went on a safari at another national park. We rode in jeeps, which was cool. My stomach hurt a lot this day. Thankfully we were in open topped jeeps or else I may have been accused of sneaking biological weapons into the car. At the park there were lots of elephants, which was cool to see them in a more natural habitat. They did get kinda pissed when we stopped and a few looked like they wanted to charge our jeeps. It was totally okay though because our 110 pound, 60 year old guide waved his hat and yelled. We saw lots of birds and some deer in the distance and even some jackels (sp?). There was a dead deer on the side of the road that was pretty gross. (You know that thing in our backseat, it's not an air freshener, it's a dead rotting deer carcas.) There are some pictures from the safari on the page now. The safari was pretty cool and made up for a lot of the bus disasters.
The Emergency Treatment Unit was pretty cool overall. There were some lectures from the Australians at the end, so those were educational. I'm now in the mini-operation theatre, which is any operations that don't need general anesthetic. I'm sure I'll have some stories from there, hopefully not of me fainting. The nurses have a pet name for me that means "white boy". It's very cute.
Sam and I are going to the gym, so I'll have to do post 2 of 2 tomorrow hopefully.
America.
-Kurt
We went to Horton Plains, which is a national park with some waterfalls and this place called World's End where you can see a nice view of the valley and take some great pictures. (Random interruption: the guy next to me at the internet cafe is looking at porn and it's kinda disturbing.) We all met in Panadura because it's a central meeting point. It also means that I have to travel 2 hours before we even leave for the place. We meet up and leave an hour later than planned, but that's expected. Anyway, we begin our 7 hour drive and have to stop and ask for directions after 20 mins. We turn around (Bright eyes!) A little later we start playing mafia. It's fun for a while, but we keep playing anyway, even after the 17th round. We get lost and have to turn around. More mafia. We stop again and ask for directions. It begins to rain. "How much time till we get there?" "2 hours." 4 hours later, we arrive at our hotel. We have some beers and eat dinner. More beers. We have to be up at 5am the next day so we can get to the park early enough to see the view at World's End. We go to sleep. We all wake up. Some of us look like death. We get all of our stuff on the bus. The bus won't start. We wait. Then we need to push start the bus. At 5:30 in the morning. There's video and pictures somewhere of us all pushing this bus in a tiny parking lot trying to get it to start. 45 minutes later the bus is ready to go. We leave for the park and spirits are high. We get lost twice for almost 2 hours on the way to the park. We do finally get to the park around 9:30. The hike wasn't too bad and there are some cool waterfalls, but not much wildlife. When we finally got to World's End, it was completely covered with fog. I have some pictures of the fog. Apparently we only missed (mist, haha) the view by a half hour. We hike back and are ready for more bus riding.
During the trip to the hotel for the night, we stop to eat at this extremely Sri Lankan town. This would be like stopping at a little gas station in the South. That place has never seen outsiders and they don't like our kind. Also, the bathroom looked like it hadn't been cleaned since it was built. It was also the only one in this town. I actually was curious to see if there was a cleaner one, so I asked almost every shop. Only one bathroom. After eating we drive another 6 hours to our hotel. More beers and dinner. I had a nice chat with one of the new girls, Milly (nickname from Emily). We talked for a while, she's a lot of fun. I'll reference her in the next post with having Broflovski's disease. End scene.
That night one of the guys, Gentle Ben, got a call from home saying that his dad is really ill. He ended up flying home and is still there now. He and his family could use any prayers.
The next day we went on a safari at another national park. We rode in jeeps, which was cool. My stomach hurt a lot this day. Thankfully we were in open topped jeeps or else I may have been accused of sneaking biological weapons into the car. At the park there were lots of elephants, which was cool to see them in a more natural habitat. They did get kinda pissed when we stopped and a few looked like they wanted to charge our jeeps. It was totally okay though because our 110 pound, 60 year old guide waved his hat and yelled. We saw lots of birds and some deer in the distance and even some jackels (sp?). There was a dead deer on the side of the road that was pretty gross. (You know that thing in our backseat, it's not an air freshener, it's a dead rotting deer carcas.) There are some pictures from the safari on the page now. The safari was pretty cool and made up for a lot of the bus disasters.
The Emergency Treatment Unit was pretty cool overall. There were some lectures from the Australians at the end, so those were educational. I'm now in the mini-operation theatre, which is any operations that don't need general anesthetic. I'm sure I'll have some stories from there, hopefully not of me fainting. The nurses have a pet name for me that means "white boy". It's very cute.
Sam and I are going to the gym, so I'll have to do post 2 of 2 tomorrow hopefully.
America.
-Kurt
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Quick
I was going to do a weekend post today, but I e-mailed the family instead. Mom noticed that my leg was bandaged in a picture, so I downplayed it a lot. One of the girl's parents came to visit and her dad is a GP in England, so he looked at my leg and said it was fine. I also asked them if they would worry if they were at home and heard I fell in a sewer. It was his idea to call it "a little fall" and tell them about it later.
There were no leeches this weekend (ok, one but that was random) so no more horror stories about that. We play mafia a lot because we have ridiculously long bus rides. The result of that is that nobody trusts each other, even outside of the game. At the national park there were peacocks sitting up in trees and I said, "Look! A peacock is in the tree!" None of the girls would believe me. Gareth looked and agreed that there indeed was a peacock in the tree, but that probably made it worse. It took us forever to convince them to look. Also, the whole country is half the size of Wisconsin, and we only travel in the lower half. But there still manages to be 7 hour bus rides. Are you kidding me? They have no highways here and the busses go about 50 km/h on the main roads (30mph) and on the bad, back, winding roads, maybe 20 or 30 km/h. It's awful. We just drink a lot on the bus trips to make the time go faster. I'll tell about the weekend later. I'm teaching two of the guys here how to do backflips today at the beach. I may have stories about that as well.
This joke works better when spoken:
How do you kill a circus?
Go for the juggler.
-Kurt
There were no leeches this weekend (ok, one but that was random) so no more horror stories about that. We play mafia a lot because we have ridiculously long bus rides. The result of that is that nobody trusts each other, even outside of the game. At the national park there were peacocks sitting up in trees and I said, "Look! A peacock is in the tree!" None of the girls would believe me. Gareth looked and agreed that there indeed was a peacock in the tree, but that probably made it worse. It took us forever to convince them to look. Also, the whole country is half the size of Wisconsin, and we only travel in the lower half. But there still manages to be 7 hour bus rides. Are you kidding me? They have no highways here and the busses go about 50 km/h on the main roads (30mph) and on the bad, back, winding roads, maybe 20 or 30 km/h. It's awful. We just drink a lot on the bus trips to make the time go faster. I'll tell about the weekend later. I'm teaching two of the guys here how to do backflips today at the beach. I may have stories about that as well.
This joke works better when spoken:
How do you kill a circus?
Go for the juggler.
-Kurt
Thursday, November 8, 2007
The Weekend with all the Leeches
We went to Ella last weekend, and in case you're wondering, we all had Rihanna stuck in our heads the entire time. The drive there from Panadura was 10 hours because we made our driver stop for booze and mixers at a few different places. As we were filling the bottles, there was a police stoppage. The 17 year old was pretty worried. We're white, so I don't think they even care. Ella is a tiny town that has Ella Rock which is a big hill that's about a 3 mile hike up. (3 miles up, 3 miles down! Easy Company!) The first night we stood on the roof of our hotel and looked at the stars, which was the best sky I've ever seen. I actually couldn't find certain things because there were so many stars. The next day we go on our hike. Our driver decided to come with us because he'd never been, so it was good to have a Sri Lankan with us. The hike starts on a railroad track and as we're on it we hear a train, so we all jump off. It actually wasn't a train, but one of those carts you see in cartoons that has two guys pulling and pushing down on a lever to make it go. I kid you not. After a little bit we got to a really nice waterfall. We're taking pictures and I notice a path. I go down it and it gets closer to the waterfall. Then I see a rock out in the middle of the waterfall. I can totally get out there. It's not dangerous at all. I climb across part of the waterfall, half slipping on the algae covered rocks above a 50 foot drop onto this rock and got some nice pictures. Then I go to get back, but I can't because I would have to put all my weight onto a rock and if I slip, I die. I look around a bit and then climb up a level where I'll have a less chance of falling to my death. I had to kinda crawl across this part of the waterfall to make sure I didn't slip. Needless to say, no one else went out there but me.
After that we start walking and one of the girls starts screaming because there's a leech on her leg. She's freaking out. Enough so that a random Sri Lankan farmer comes over to her with a rag soaked in salt water to get the leech off. Now I think, "I was just in the waterfall and my feet are soaking wet, I also still have my open leg wound, let's check for leeches on my feet." My sandals have straps over the top, so you can't see most of my feet. And sure enough there was one on my foot. I tried to flick it off, but it then latched to my finger. So I have this leech on my finger and it won't come off. If you pull them off they bite harder and you end up ripping part of their heads off inside your skin. That is not desirable. So the farmer comes up to me and wipes it off. The leeches don't hurt, but THEY'RE LEECHES. THEY SUCK YOUR BLOOD. I should have brought garlic. So, during the rest of our hike, we'd get a leech on us every 10 minutes or so. The farmer stayed with us for the rest of the hike, which was good because we didn't know where we were going. We'd stop to deleech ourselves and then more would crawl onto you, and they'd be under your feet and in the people's shoes. They can bite through and climb under socks, so that wasn't even protection. At one point Cat got bit on the ass by a bug, but didn't think too much of it. 45 minutes of blood sucking later, she realizes that it's a leech. She had to get one of the girls to get this leech off of her. It was bigger than your thumb and when it came off, Cat bled a lot. Leeches have an anticoagulant enzyme in their mouths. Mother Nature can be a real bitch sometimes. Cat's blood covered white pants aside, we made it up the mountain. When we reached the summit, the fog decided to cover the entire valley. (Mother Nature 2, Us 0). The top was mercifully leach-free, so we ate up there and sat for a while. There were random moments when the fog would clear, so there are some pictures. Our farmer took us to some other rocks that were really high up, but there were safety rails to make sure you don't fall off. Look for them in the pictures. They're right next to the flying pigs. So after we're up there, we had to go back through the gauntlet of leeches again. The farmer realized that some of the girls were not pleased, so he took us back by another path that had like 2 leeches on it. Why we didn't take that path first, nobody knows. We tipped our farmer and gave his daughter a pen. Apparently they don't always have pens for school. When we got back, we checked every part of our bodies for leeches just to make sure one wasn't hiding in the taint. Of the 8 of us, 6 actually got bit, but we all had a few leeches on us at one point. I think I had 15 total.
That night we didn't feel like doing anything and it was pouring rain, so we decided to drink. We ask our driver to take us out in the monsoon to find an alcohol shop. The one alcohol shop in Ella only had Arrack, so we got some. Then we started trying hotels. That was too expensive. So we drive to the next town over to try to find some. It's still pouring rain and dark out. We eventually did find a booze shop and thus ended our hour voyage. There's video of me snoring passed out on my bed that night. All together, a good weekend.
The Emergency Treatment Unit isn't that exciting thus far, but it's alright. We're going to a national park this weekend. We were told there will be more leeches. I'll try to get a picture this time.
Due to that I still haven't told my parents about my leg, I'm putting the remainder of my pictures on a bloody-leg-free site, so go here from now on: http://s234.photobucket.com/albums/ee157/kurtysrilanka/
Thank you again, Lisa. The kids from tsunami camp were playing with my camera, so that explains some of the pictures. They got one of Jackie's chest, which makes me proud because I've been trying to straighten them out. They started out giving the european cheek kisses to me, so I taught them the fist pound and the firm handshake. They caught on quickly. Most guys hold hands here, so I couldn't change that, sadly.
-Turk
After that we start walking and one of the girls starts screaming because there's a leech on her leg. She's freaking out. Enough so that a random Sri Lankan farmer comes over to her with a rag soaked in salt water to get the leech off. Now I think, "I was just in the waterfall and my feet are soaking wet, I also still have my open leg wound, let's check for leeches on my feet." My sandals have straps over the top, so you can't see most of my feet. And sure enough there was one on my foot. I tried to flick it off, but it then latched to my finger. So I have this leech on my finger and it won't come off. If you pull them off they bite harder and you end up ripping part of their heads off inside your skin. That is not desirable. So the farmer comes up to me and wipes it off. The leeches don't hurt, but THEY'RE LEECHES. THEY SUCK YOUR BLOOD. I should have brought garlic. So, during the rest of our hike, we'd get a leech on us every 10 minutes or so. The farmer stayed with us for the rest of the hike, which was good because we didn't know where we were going. We'd stop to deleech ourselves and then more would crawl onto you, and they'd be under your feet and in the people's shoes. They can bite through and climb under socks, so that wasn't even protection. At one point Cat got bit on the ass by a bug, but didn't think too much of it. 45 minutes of blood sucking later, she realizes that it's a leech. She had to get one of the girls to get this leech off of her. It was bigger than your thumb and when it came off, Cat bled a lot. Leeches have an anticoagulant enzyme in their mouths. Mother Nature can be a real bitch sometimes. Cat's blood covered white pants aside, we made it up the mountain. When we reached the summit, the fog decided to cover the entire valley. (Mother Nature 2, Us 0). The top was mercifully leach-free, so we ate up there and sat for a while. There were random moments when the fog would clear, so there are some pictures. Our farmer took us to some other rocks that were really high up, but there were safety rails to make sure you don't fall off. Look for them in the pictures. They're right next to the flying pigs. So after we're up there, we had to go back through the gauntlet of leeches again. The farmer realized that some of the girls were not pleased, so he took us back by another path that had like 2 leeches on it. Why we didn't take that path first, nobody knows. We tipped our farmer and gave his daughter a pen. Apparently they don't always have pens for school. When we got back, we checked every part of our bodies for leeches just to make sure one wasn't hiding in the taint. Of the 8 of us, 6 actually got bit, but we all had a few leeches on us at one point. I think I had 15 total.
That night we didn't feel like doing anything and it was pouring rain, so we decided to drink. We ask our driver to take us out in the monsoon to find an alcohol shop. The one alcohol shop in Ella only had Arrack, so we got some. Then we started trying hotels. That was too expensive. So we drive to the next town over to try to find some. It's still pouring rain and dark out. We eventually did find a booze shop and thus ended our hour voyage. There's video of me snoring passed out on my bed that night. All together, a good weekend.
The Emergency Treatment Unit isn't that exciting thus far, but it's alright. We're going to a national park this weekend. We were told there will be more leeches. I'll try to get a picture this time.
Due to that I still haven't told my parents about my leg, I'm putting the remainder of my pictures on a bloody-leg-free site, so go here from now on: http://s234.photobucket.com
Thank you again, Lisa. The kids from tsunami camp were playing with my camera, so that explains some of the pictures. They got one of Jackie's chest, which makes me proud because I've been trying to straighten them out. They started out giving the european cheek kisses to me, so I taught them the fist pound and the firm handshake. They caught on quickly. Most guys hold hands here, so I couldn't change that, sadly.
-Turk
Monday, November 5, 2007
Sorry
I did a vaginal examination on Friday. And that's not a really douchey way of saying "I got some", but I did an actual vaginal examination on a woman who was going to give birth later that day. It was interesting because you can feel the baby's head and the dilation, and it was good to actually do something like that instead of just read about it.
I moved down to Galle now so I'm at a different hospital that doesn't even have a maternity ward, so no more gross stories.
I have an epic weekend to recount, but that will not happen today because I have to go back to work in a bit, but just as a teaser, the title of the next post will be, "The Weekend with all the Leeches"
-Kurt
I moved down to Galle now so I'm at a different hospital that doesn't even have a maternity ward, so no more gross stories.
I have an epic weekend to recount, but that will not happen today because I have to go back to work in a bit, but just as a teaser, the title of the next post will be, "The Weekend with all the Leeches"
-Kurt
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