You know when you get hurt and at first your not that worried about the injury, just taking it as it goes? Then somebody talks to you and tells you all the things that can go wrong with what is already wrong with you. Consequently you get a little paranoid and can't stop thinking about what was previously just a pain in the leg. Literally.
Last weekend G and I headed down to Chiang Mai like we always do. To get back to the orphanage we have to take a series of trucks up the mountains and then somebody from the orphanage has to drive out to the main road to pick us up and take us back. So it was a nice Sunday night and we were waiting to be picked up when Aussi (a 15 year old boy mind you) shows up on a two seater, I repeat, Two seater scooter. Also keep in mind that the wheels on the scooters here are significantly smaller than the wheels on scooters in America or Europe so it's already a little wobbly when you ride it. It ended up that all three of us were riding home on this small scooter, and I think it's important to note that G and I had back packs that amounted to a large 10 year old. It made me feel Thai. For a wonderful 10 minutes I thought I was as Asian as the Asian driving the scooter. Everyone listen! (or read) Being Asian is awesome.
Here's where my being Asian stopped. Petch (another 15 year old) showed up on a second scooter. So I was getting off the first and onto the second when I noticed that my leg hurt really bad. Like it was on fire. You guessed it my leg was resting against the uncovered exhaust pipe on the scooter. Needless to say I didn't enjoy the second half of my ride home in the fresh night air watching the lighting a ways off as the Asian I previously was. Okay, maybe I enjoyed it a little bit but my skin had just been melted and it kind of hurt.
I got burned, and I got burned bad. I don't know why the engineers who design these scooters don't think, "Man, this exhaust pipe gets Really hot after driving this scooter. It's open and anyone can touch it, especially when they're getting off the back and they need to put their leg there. Hmm... maybe we should cover it... Meh, they'll just learn by experience." And we do. We do learn by experience.
I wasn't too worried about the burn until the new volunteers from Germany started talking to me about it. They said things like "flies sit on it," "they plant eggs," and "you can't always be swatting at them, some flies are too small to notice." That's when my paranoia kicked in. So, now I keep it covered as I should/should have so no flies can lay their eggs in there.
Besides that burn (which really isn't that bad, it's just something to write about.) everything is going great. So great. Especially because as I write this I'm listening to one of my favorite songs and that always makes a good moment better. I love it here, and though I miss my family and friends I wouldn't trade this experience for the world. It is so much fun to be with these people. And up at the orphanage I get the opportunity to meet so many people from all around the world because what we call guests come to the orphanage a few times a week to see what we're all about. It is fantastic and I love it.
Hope your leg heals fine.
ReplyDelete