Scars of pleasure
Scars of pain
Atmospheric changes
Make them sensitive again
It is the third time in Latin America that I've had this experience............wallet lifting.
First in Mexico City´s subway about 8 years ago. Packed in like sardines, people pushing and shoving, the expert lifted the wallet out of my backpocket. I stormed out of the subway, furious, and started screaming at some man whom I thought to be the perpetrator. I even searched him, while he looked at me bewildered by the crazed gringo.
Then, in 1998, carrying the wallet safely (or so I thought) in my front pocket, I was aboard a bus in Brazil, rocketing down the TransAmazonian BR-364 highway. As I exited the backdoor of the bus with my friend, I had to squeeze past several passengers who seemed to be blocking the exit. As soon as we stepped off the bus, I realized I'd been had. My friend ran after the bus shouting, but to no avail. They had my wallet.
And then the third time, last week. I was in the Andean city of Loja with several Ecuadorian Shuar Indigenous women from my village, observing the September festivities in the city's main park. Huge towers were being burned, and fireworks were going off like crazy. In fact the place was total chaos, because the towers were being burned dangerously close to the crowds, with no barriers in place to keep them away (this is Latin America you know!), and hugely explosive fireworks were being lit in the middle of the spectacle with no regard for public safety, sparks falling onto people's heads.
Anyway, amidst the multitude of people pushing and shoving to avoid getting hit by the explosives, the unknown perpetrators quickly lifted the cash out of my front pocket. I promise to hide all money in my bra from now on.
I also had the good fortune of visiting the emergency room of an Amazonian hospital recently. My right thumb had become severely infected, swollen and filled with pus due to an unknown bacterial agent. The pain was intense and my thumb looked like a papaya so I knew it had to be lanced.
The hospital I went to is located in the capital of my province. You would think it would be somewhat modern, but what can you expect when you're in Ecuador and in the Amazon? There were broken windows on the outside, and the ceilings inside the hospital had holes in them.
And the emergency room? When I got there, the nurses told me I would have to wait because the emergency room doctor was on his lunch break! So much for emergencies.
I waited for the guy to get back from lunch. He looked like he was around 25, and told me he had just graduated from med school the year before. I started trembling inside, wondering if this doc knew what he was doing. Well the medical instruments looked sterile, and the anasthesia worked just fine.
He stuck needles in my thumb, and drained the pus. It was excrutiating, but he did a pretty good job cuz my thumb is healing now.
Later, I called the Peace Corps nurse to report the incident and she nearly lost it when I told her I went to a hospital in the Amazon. I guess Amazonian hospitals are not highly reknowned for their medical expertise, but I came out alive and well. Peace Corps hard core!
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