Toenails and Torture

We had a big storm one day. Sierra was up at the centro playing with the kids when the storm started, and I was doing laundry in the river. I had come back to the cabaña when the storm started. A few minutes later, a truck pulls up (one of the 6 in the town) and honks twice and a bunch of kids are helping Sierra into the room.

I look down and her toe is mushed. Apparently the kids were kicking the water and splashing each other when Si ended up kicking a little hole in the concrete. I tried to clean it, and the toenail was pretty bad. She was freaking out a bit, so I decided just to clean it, put on some anti-biotic and bandage it.

That night, it continued to bleed and I had to change the bandages 3 times. I told her we'd have to go to the doctor in the morning. She was not happy about this prospect.

The doctor is in another town called San Quintin and is about 15 minutes away. She wasn't up to walking, so I asked around and got a ride. We went to the doctor and he said he'd have to remove the toenail. Sierra was having a really hard time with it. The doctor was so kind, and another guy went and got his guitar and started playing it for her. She sat on my lap and they did it really quick and cleaned it up and bandaged it and she was done.

The doctor gave me anti-biotics in pill form and a prescription for some pain medicine. The doctor was free!! He didn't charge us anything. I bought the guys who gave us a ride a coke and gave them 20 pesos.

By the time we arrived back at town, Sierra was doing better and even having fun with her heightened celebrity status. That night we had to change the bandage and soak her foot in hot salt water and all the kids were gathered around to see it. At first she didn't want them to see, but finally she said it was okay and even ended up taking a picture of it.

I told her that in the old days during war that people would take off other peoples toenails to torture them.

That night as we walked back, the lightning bugs were so thick and the crickets were chirping. We pretended it was the papparazzi taking pictures of us because we are so famous. It was funny!