My yachtie mate Carol on catamaran Speakeasy is feeling like Indonesia is not the place for her. With the run of bad luck she is having, I quite understand.
Her first misadventure was when we were in Ambon. We were exploring the city of Ambon on foot when Carol stepped on a timber slatted drain cover. One piece of timber snapped in half and one foot plunged into the drain hole. The rather deep drain hole. So the poor woman was thigh deep in the hole but with the other foot still on the pavement. We hauled her up and got her seated to assess the damage. Hubby and I raced off to source an icepack while our Doctor yachtie mate, Peter, did the doctor thing.
Finding an ice pack proved to be a difficult mission in a town that speaks a language we don't. After checking out the freezer section in the closest supermarket, the bags of frozen french fries was looking like the best option. It would certainly make for a unique ice pack. Fortunately Hubby spied a bag of peas, Australia's standby for icepacks. The checkout proved as equally challenging. A bit like watching a pot boil, watching 3 staff slowly serving the same person was excruciating. And we were the 3rd in line.
Back to Carol, frozen peas in hand, and it was off to hospital for X-rays of a suspected broken ankle. Several hours and several doctors opinions on the X-ray later, Carol's ankle was declared severely sprained. Thank goodness for no broken bones. So, crutches in hand, she became Hop-along Carol.
Poor damaged Carol
the offending draincover
a new mode of transport
Moving forward to Pulau Wangi Wangi, a dose of exhaustion and bad back kept her in bed for a few days. At least the ankle got properly rested and was healing nicely.
Then came the scooter incident. A thoughtful Carol decided to spoil her man by nipping off on the scooter to replenish his bintang beer stocks while he was sleeping. She was to follow us but as she started to take off her throttle jammed, she clipped our back tyre and the bike dropped. Carol was thrown sideways, landing hard on one shoulder. We picked her up and nursing one arm, she toddled back to her boat in obvious pain.
I said "Doctor" and gave our very own Dr Peter a shout.
A quick consult later, another suspected broken bone, and it was off to hospital again for Carol for an X-ray. Dèjá vu!
Wanci hospital in Wakatobi couldn't (or wouldn't) do an X-ray to confirm the diagnosis so it was decided that Carol would be transported to Pulau Buton, an island about 60 nautical miles away. I travelled with Carol as her support person, as her partner Glen would have to follow the next day in their boat.
What a journey that turned out to be. Loaded onto an ambulance motor boat, the driver gunned it to Buton island but instead of the port area of Pasarwajo, we were taken to a little local fishing boat inlet. Walking wounded Carol had to climb from one boat to the next then onto a bit of a timber jetty. Then sit in the hot afternoon sun and wait for the ambulance that was still 45mins away. I stood behind her as her backrest and sunshade and had to call on some help when she was about to faint.
But wait, it gets better.
The ambulance van arrived, we got Carol settled on the stretcher, then I realised there were no actual seats in the rear. I sat sidewards on a narrow bench with one foot on an oxygen tank and the other hooked on the undercarriage of the stretcher. The nurse with us sat on a tyre. Mmmmm. It would have been amusing under different circumstances.
interesting seating in an ambulance
The goat track out of the inlet was full of big potholes, deep tyre tracks full of mud and various other bumps and lumps. In other words, a totally excruciating ride for Carol. Then we were told it was 'only' for 15 minutes, until we reached the road. I'm sure Carol was thinking "kill me now".
The road proved to be only marginally better than the goat track. It also involved speed bumps, potholes, hills and many corners and curves. Right hand corners worked well for Carol, but left handers were far from comfortable. Mind you, none of it was comfortable for Carol. And only taking right hand corners wouldn't have gotten us far at all. Add to that, a driver with his foot flat to the floor, siren going most of the way and it was a trip from hell. Carol's one tough lady but 2 &1/2 hours of this really put her to the test.
One look at the public hospital emergency department and the decision was easy to make. We were out of there and into a lovely hotel. With the help of two wonderful women, Uly and Tiffany, we were whisked off to a private radiology centre, X-ray sorted, then onwards to that lovely hotel I mentioned.
The next morning I caught a Bentor, with a singing driver to serenade me all the way to the radiology clinic. On picking up the X-ray results we discovered Carol had done a proper job this time. She had snapped the right clavicle. Of all the bones to break, this is one of the worst ones when you live on a boat. It's very hard to immobilise a whole shoulder area when on a moving boat. It's even harder to immobilise a Carol, pint-sized ball of energy that she is . Hotel and bedrest was the only way. I thought I'd have to play hard ball with Carol and potentially tie her to the bed but she was exhausted from a 13 hour day of being transported across a town, across an ocean, across an island then across a city.
my singing bentor driver
Carol, you are a pint-sized power house of grit, guts and toughness. It was my pleasure to play nurse for 2 days until your partner Glen arrived in Pulau Buton. And it was absolutely wonderful on day 5 when you proudly stated "I dressed myself this morning".
You go girl!
one very tough chic
Watusi Woman - suitably impressed, out.