Don't walk with knives!

I've learned the hard way to be more cautious about knives.  On Monday my family and I were hiking over to some relatives’ village and I slipped on the muddy road.  It gets soo slippery on the dirt/clay roads on Pentecost!  My mama had given me her knife to carry and as I put it in my bag she informed me that the correct way to carry it is with the blade up.  I should have known better! 

As I was walking my feet came out from under me and I fell on top of my bag at just the right angle that the knife went through my bag and into my side.  I felt a sharp pain and immediately tried to get up, at which point my mama saw the knife and grabbed it out from my side.  At first when I saw the blood squirting out of the wound I was scared.  I thought, I'm in the middle of nowhere....what if I can't get the bleeding to stop and I bleed to death.  But luckily it was only a few minutes walk on flat ground to our family's house.  (Earlier in the walk, my mama had told me they had lost one grandpa a few days before and that when they get to their house, I would need to wait small while they cried over him.)  So when we walked up, me with my hand pressing on my wound to get it to stop bleeding, they all went in side and wept.  Classic example of the lack of urgency for health in Vanuatu!  While they wept about him I got my wound to stop bleeding.  Then I asked for soap and they gave me some laundry soap to clean it out with.  I washed it a bit but knew it really needed a thorough cleaning to ward off infection.  After this they just wanted to treat it with custom medicine by putting the water from leaves in it.  I wasn't too excited about that idea. 

I tried to call the Peace Corps emergency medical line but couldn't get through. Luckily I was able to text a friend who called the PC doctor and then she called me right away. She immediately said she was bringing me in for stitches.  Thats the great thing about Peace Corps-they don't mess around with medical issues.  She arranged for me to take the next flight in to Vila which was only a few hours later.  I got lucky since there are only 3 flights a week from the airport to Vila. 

My family thought it was a bit extreme to go all the way to Vila for stitches.  They thought it would heal just fine with the leaves.  And really, the bigger concern for them was that I wasn't staying for lunch.  While I had been concerned about my wound, they had killed to chickens.  I compromised by eating a piece of corn.  My mama hiked with me back though the river and small water falls, and down the path for about an hour.  Then we caught an hour boat ride to the airport. 

Although the airport is only an hour boat ride away, this was the first time my mama had ever seen the airport!  The airport is so small I didn’t even talk to a single staff person, just waited 20 minutes till the plane arrived and walked on.  You don’t even have to show ID for local flights!  Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to hike to the other side of the bush to pack a bag so I came to Vila with my blood stained clothes and my small purse/bag. 

The PC doctor picked me up from the airport and took me to the medical office where she cleaned out my wounds and stitched me up.  I got five stitches.  The knife went in a little over an inch, luckily it just went in to my extra fat/love handle…never thought I’d be happy for the extra on the sides! 

I'm doing fine now!  Been enjoying the recovery in Vila.  I get my stitches out tomorrow and then fly back to Pentecost Monday.