Safety Third

Pictures:
https://picasaweb.google.com/116486261622853021292/SATrip2011AndInto2012?authkey=Gv1sRgCPSd8Y2Qs8fw9gE#

The Eagleson has (crash) landed - so I was clearing hornet nests out of the thatch roof after our 2 month absence from Marloth. I have to spray them at night when it's cool so I climbed up the ladder in the dark, with my headlamp on. I was doing fine, until I disturbed one of the nests and they attacked and I was getting stung. "I'd better get out of here" I thought, so I quickly jumped of the ladder. I didn't think it was a big deal, if I had dropped it on a snowboard my brothers (and probably my mom) would have shrugged unamused. Its maybe 3 meters/12 ft. I landed on my feet, but then I just kept going downward...

It hurt, bad, but I thought it was just a nasty bruise and for those of us married to nurses you learn to brush-off compound leg fractures, severed arteries and other minor injuries. So I just had to 'stay off it' for a week. Well, by Saturday morning it didn't look so good. On Sunday, my foot looked like one of those balloon figures you get from street performers. By Monday, Nicola said "ummmmm, time to go to the hospital." So we've been back-and-forth from the private hospital in Nelspruit (Visa=healthcare). I have crushed my right heal inwards cracking the outer shell of my calcaneous (heel bone) like a boiled egg. Bad news: I'm out of commission for 8 weeks at least. Good news: no surgery needed, it will heal nicely and it will still fit in a snowboard/ski boot. That's all I really worried about. The thing is, it wasn't worth the hornet stings, they were gone by the next morning! As James would say: two thumbs down.

This inconvenience does not change our plans too much.  We had come back to Marloth to rest, and get into a routine; read a little, swim a little, get some schooling done. In my opinion, there isn't a better place in the world to rest then right here. I look incredibly casual in my recovery because I always have my one foot proped up on a stool;  when the neighbors go past, all they can see is me with my feet up, on the computer, reading, doing crafts with kids, even cooking on the fire while Nicola walks back-and-forth delivering drinks to me! Either they think I'm a lazy ass or have a acheived a new level in South African male-dom. I just smile and wave.