To the Hospital

I couldn’t get water for the dogs because I couldn’t walk down three steps without leaning on a mop.  I need to get to the hospital.  I went I called Tito who took a water taxi right over.  Tito had to help me down the stairs and onto the boat. We took off and stopped at a wooden shack over the water.  I climbed out and was greeted by a mechanic working on an outboard.   He greeted me warmly, we see each other on te street all the time.   It’s a small town so you see everybody all the time.  Time to walk a wooden plank but was too unsteady, I’ve never had good balance but I was fucked.  He grabbed my arm to help.  Up the plank came an Indian who greeted me warmly and also assisted on getting me to shore.

He held onto my arm as we walked to the road.  Still unsteady he held my arm as he walked me to the hospital.  “Mi buen amigo!” I gave him a blank look.  “Su Barco”. Ahh, this is the guy who helped me when my boat almost sank and the guy who’s cayuca I had strapped to my boat and given a ride home.
I gave him a big grin.  As we walked arm in arm a pretty girl on a bike road by and gave a big amused smile.  No, we are not a couple.  We got to the hospital and I triaged within minutes and then chatted for five minutes while waiting to see the doctor.  Tito walked in and seeing that I had an escort the Indian shook my hand and left.  I was shown into the doctors office and Tito joined to translate.  She just kept staring at my skin.  Covered with sores from head to toe.   Festering lessions and scabs everywhere.  I was sent to get an intravenous drip.   The technician mixed up a concoction and I laid down for I don’t know how long while it flowed into my system.  Then I got a shot in the ass with penicillin and three prescriptions which Tito promptly filled.  

A doctor came out and consulted with me for half an hour telling me that I was severely malnourished. I would need somebody to look after me, get me some proper nutrition and my strength would return.  Having no family here I asked Tito if he could find a girl to come to my house and cook.  Now the refrigerator and stove are broken and I have no running water.  These should all be fixed on Monday.  After a month of searching I have found a highly recommended handyman thanks to one of the Bocas groups on Facebook.  Done with the hospital.  Cost for treatment and drugs?  Thirty bucks.

Bought lots of fruits and veggies.

Well, maybe we should buy another stove anyway as I will need one at the resort.  Off to the hardware store.  Here, this looks like a flame throwing three burner.  You get some awesome cooking power with little cast iron stoves, things that will throw off a lot more heat than my $600 stove.   A leg fell off, it was miscast.  A new one was found and Shakey tried to install it by removing a bolt using a flat head screwdriver in a phillips head and a wire cutter on the nut.  Come on, its a hardware store, don’t you have a wrench or socket and a phillips head screwdriver.  After watching this idiocy for ten minutes I told Shakey that somebody would be in tomorrow to pick it up.

Tito volunteered to care for me and told me he would find a girl to clean the house.  His brother, Fernando came and the three of us headed to my house where they carried the stuff up.  I gave Tito $200 and a big shopping list of food and cleaning supplies.

They left in my boat to return tomorrow with a large amount of food, cleaning supplies and a stove.

I searched for four hours for my passport.  In the process, organizing and throwing out a bunch of crap, too much clutter here.  Conclusion?  The passport will never be seen again.

So, I will be home bound for a while as I recover.  Wish me luck.

Posted on January 28, 2012 by . This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

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