The Adventures of Mike and Nate!!

Friday we spent the morning cleaning and unpacking. In the afternoon we walked uptown with Bill and Joan to exchange some dollars into pesos, make some keys and work on getting a Mexican cell phone. When we got back to the house we found that Nate's bedroom door was locked and shut. He claims he didn't do it and I guess it could have been locked already and the wind blew it shut. Usually this would not be a problem, you just stick a nail in and pop the lock open. Not so for us, all the interior doors are keyed locks and we have no keys. Bill tried opening it with a credit card but we just couldn't get it to work. Nate's room is on the second floor and all the windows have iron bars welded over them. Nate told me he had squeezed through the bars in the front yard so we decided to give it a try.


He was able to get everything through but his head. I always told him he had a fat head and now I have proof. It was a challenge getting him up to the bars and then through the bars to begin with and my ladder was to short for me to get enough grip on the bars to spread them. I told him he would slim down if we didn't feed him for a few days but he didn't want to wait.




I was trying to think of a way to spread the bars when I remembered the jack in the van. I really didn't want to call the fire department and tell them my kid got his head stuck breaking into his room.

The jack worked great and Nate was a free man. One thing I forgot to add was our cheering section. They are building a house down the street and the workers were just leaving to walk home as we were trying to un-stick Nate's head. They seemed to get a big kick out of the silly Americanos.


My adventure happened on Saturday. Some of the kids were going to climb the mountain behind CVE and I decided to tag along with my mountain bike. I stayed with them until I reached a road leading back to town and I decided to give it a try. It wasn't long until I started passing homesteads and each one had a dog or 2 or 5. I moved my dog spray to my pocket so I could get it quick if needed. It wasn't long and the gravel road turned to pavement and I saw the dog that I just knew was going to come after me. Sure enough he was up in a flash and the chase was on. I reached for my spray taking one hand off the handle bars. It was gone, it must have fallen out of my pocket on the rough gravel. I was still riding one handed and watching the dog fast approaching when I hit the speed bump. (There are speed bumps everywhere down here) I went airborne one handed and had just enough time to think to myself "this is going to hurt and then the dog is going to chew on me for awhile" I hit the road and it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it was going to be. I think my bouncing down the road scared the dog because he stopped. Maybe he felt he had accomplished his goal by getting me to wipe out. Either way I was thankful I only had a few scrapes and bruises and no dog bites. I made it home without further incident. I think I may keep my riding closer to CVE for awhile.


You probably can't see the road rash on my arm and elbow but you might be able to see the asphalt on my shirt. I am very thankful I didn't need a trip to the ER which brings me to the last experience of the day.


Michael, one of the boys at CVE cut/punctured his heel while skateboarding. (It must have been the day for Michaels to get hurt) The wound was deep and tunnelled down towards the Achilles tendon. He was having a lot of pain and wouldn't flex or extend his foot. It was more than I could deal with and we decided to take him to the "ER." For all you guys back at BroMenn be thankful for American Medicine. We waited in a 10x10 room with another little boy and his family. He also had a laceration. There was lots of commotion behind the door and then we heard "it's a boy." Then the door opened and they took the other boy with the hand lac. Again there was lots of commotion and screaming as the kid got his stitches. This seemed to worry Michael. Finally, the door opened and they took us back. The lady and baby must have been moved but there was another woman in labor behind curtain #3. (They only have 3 curtains) We were behind curtain #1 on the same sheets as the kid before us and probably the person before him and so on. They were filthy with dirt and blood and didn't reach the bottom of the cart which was also filthy. The nurse injected lidocaine without cleaning the wound at all. She then wiped on some betadine, wiped up some blood that had dripped on the cart and then wiped the wound some more with the same piece of gauze. There was a young female Dr. probably a Resident, who just started suturing the wound. There were no sterile drapes and the suture was dragging on the bed and Michael's pants. Another Dr. came to observe her suturing and asked if the Achilles tendon was OK. (That made me feel a little better, at least I had thought of the tendon possibly being injured) She said it was fine and kept suturing although she never explored the wound or checked to see if he could flex and extend his foot. I decided that I will be going to the States if we need any medical care. We take so much for granted.

La Familia Zobrist