I have been enjoying swimming in the ocean until recently. I decided to go swimming with one of my friends who came on the hike and we headed down to the beach house one day after school. It was a bit of a frustrating walk for me as we have a little bit of communication issues and when we got to the beach house there were numerous other people there. The family that I am staying with (Solanos) shares the house with other relatives. Also some kids thought it would be fun to come watch us swim.
Anyway it was low tide when we got to the beach and everyone kept telling me it was low tide. Now, not having an ocean of my own I didn't understand the implications of it being low tide, I just thought we needed to walk further to get to the water. Loren came in with me and after about 5 minutes of swimming or so I discovered why you don't swim in low tide and especially without water shoes.
I stepped directly onto a sea urchin and got 13 spikes in my foot. I yelled and lifted my foot up and asked Loren to pull them out (they were in fairly deep) but she couldn't get them all out. So I ended up "swimming" to shore where a nice boy helped pull them out for me. Unfortunately for me, for the next half an hour or so the only English phrases I heard were "she went swimming in low tide" and "why didn't you wear water shoes?" other than these lovely 2 phrases I was bathed in sea of Tagalog and therefore remained oblivious to what was happening to me.
Anyway I was taken to Loren's house on a single (like a dirtbike) on which we fit 4 people. At her house her entire family gathered around me and I got to hear those 2 English phrases over and over again. To top it off we were in a blackout so everything was done by flashlight by that time because the sun sets so early here. Anyway her family was trying to be very nice to me and they cut lemons and squeezed hot lemon juice onto my foot. Sadly by this time I was mortified at my lack of knowledge, that I no idea what was going on and my lack of understanding. I ended up crying in front of her family. :( It's funny now because they had no idea what to do other than to say "don't cry!" I guess I didn't make it too easy on them.
I then limped home (after refusing a ride) where I was given lemon juice treatment again and then sent to the doctor with my host father. The doctor wasn't at the hospital (also in a black out) so we visisted his house where I got a prescription after he examined my foot. My foot is okay now but I am a bit more hesitant to go swimming!
1 comment:
Glad you are OK. Sounds like an interesting experience.
Try shuffling your feet if the water isn't clear enough to see the bottom from where you are standing. If you do nudge another sea urchin, it will be far less painful, and if you need to stand up, reach the bottom with your toes first and make sure its clear and you should be OK.
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