Injuries
Manual labor (in general), and Carpentry (in specific), lend themselves to injury. This week, I maintained two accidents, neither life-threatening, both painful.
We had bought 2 cement sinks in Pucallpa, for transport to the project site, where we intended to use them for washing dishes, clothes, and other paraphenalia. They are very heavy, probably weighing upwards of 150 pounds. Once safely transported to the project site, Alex and I began unloading them from the back of the jeep to the front porch of our house. Somehow, the combination of the weight of the sink, and my general clumsiness, contrived to make me stumble over the lip of the porch. As I fell, I held on to the sink, hoping somehow to avoid cracking the structure. In the end, it came to rest on my foot and my fingers. In the process, it scraped my knee rather badly. Parting with a little skin did not worry me much at the moment, but the next morning, carrying water from the well, I slipped on the treacherous mud path, and fell again, slamming my knee into the mud and dirt. This broke the fresh scab, and caked mud and dirt on the wound. I approached ansley about the matter after breakfast, and she, being an excellent nurse, cleaned and bandaged it most handily. Nevertheless, I sustained an infection, and have had to keep a bandage and antiseptic ointment on the wound for most of the week.
My second injury occured as Jackson and I attempted to fit a window into its frame. This process is complicated by the fact that the window frame is seldom (if ever) square. We therefore have a great deal of fiddling to do once the window is built in order to fit it into the frame. Jackson and I would usually plane down in one spot, lift the window up into the frame, and find another spot that needed help. This means that we end up lifting the window up and down into the frame multiple times for each hanging. Keep in mind, the windows are not traditional windows, but rather more like small doors, which open and close on hinges. These windows probably weigh 60-70 pounds each when completed, so it is a lot of work to heft them up and down. As we were fiddling with a particularly ornery specimen, we failed to notice that the bottom of the window had been pushed off its 2x4 by our various hammerings, and the window, without warning, fell to the ground. Jackson was quick enough to avoid it falling on his toes, I was not so quick. In fact, the entire weight of the window smashed into my right foot, concentrating it's force on my big right toenail. This hurt badly, and I deemed it necessary to hop about the room on one foot with vigour, murmuring an occasional "ouch". Ansley and Jackson were quick to express concern, and encouraged me to desist from leaping about the room, and sit down for a moment. Upon seating myself, I finally took a good look at my foot, and found nothing impressive. Simply a rather blackened toenail, and a scratched upper foot. In 1/2 an hour, my foot had swollen considerably, and it still remains to be seen whether or not I will lose my toenail.
Despite these minor ailments, I continue on in excellent health and spirits. Except for a peculiarity of gait, due to my blackened toe.
We had bought 2 cement sinks in Pucallpa, for transport to the project site, where we intended to use them for washing dishes, clothes, and other paraphenalia. They are very heavy, probably weighing upwards of 150 pounds. Once safely transported to the project site, Alex and I began unloading them from the back of the jeep to the front porch of our house. Somehow, the combination of the weight of the sink, and my general clumsiness, contrived to make me stumble over the lip of the porch. As I fell, I held on to the sink, hoping somehow to avoid cracking the structure. In the end, it came to rest on my foot and my fingers. In the process, it scraped my knee rather badly. Parting with a little skin did not worry me much at the moment, but the next morning, carrying water from the well, I slipped on the treacherous mud path, and fell again, slamming my knee into the mud and dirt. This broke the fresh scab, and caked mud and dirt on the wound. I approached ansley about the matter after breakfast, and she, being an excellent nurse, cleaned and bandaged it most handily. Nevertheless, I sustained an infection, and have had to keep a bandage and antiseptic ointment on the wound for most of the week.
My second injury occured as Jackson and I attempted to fit a window into its frame. This process is complicated by the fact that the window frame is seldom (if ever) square. We therefore have a great deal of fiddling to do once the window is built in order to fit it into the frame. Jackson and I would usually plane down in one spot, lift the window up into the frame, and find another spot that needed help. This means that we end up lifting the window up and down into the frame multiple times for each hanging. Keep in mind, the windows are not traditional windows, but rather more like small doors, which open and close on hinges. These windows probably weigh 60-70 pounds each when completed, so it is a lot of work to heft them up and down. As we were fiddling with a particularly ornery specimen, we failed to notice that the bottom of the window had been pushed off its 2x4 by our various hammerings, and the window, without warning, fell to the ground. Jackson was quick enough to avoid it falling on his toes, I was not so quick. In fact, the entire weight of the window smashed into my right foot, concentrating it's force on my big right toenail. This hurt badly, and I deemed it necessary to hop about the room on one foot with vigour, murmuring an occasional "ouch". Ansley and Jackson were quick to express concern, and encouraged me to desist from leaping about the room, and sit down for a moment. Upon seating myself, I finally took a good look at my foot, and found nothing impressive. Simply a rather blackened toenail, and a scratched upper foot. In 1/2 an hour, my foot had swollen considerably, and it still remains to be seen whether or not I will lose my toenail.
Despite these minor ailments, I continue on in excellent health and spirits. Except for a peculiarity of gait, due to my blackened toe.
posted by Jonas at 7:12 PM
2 Comments:
I read aloud your blog to mom and dad tonight, as we sat around eating tomato sandwiches...OUCH!! At this point, I'm not sure you need Dr. Bronner's soap from home as much as your hockey pads and helmet!
John--You sound like such a great handyman! I'm so sorry to hear of your painful misadventures; hopefully the toenail will stay with you! Also, I LOVE your writing and word usage! So entertaining to read!
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