Thursday, March 5, 2009

The Day of Love or how I almost lost my little toe

We were sitting in the hard sipping terere when I discovered my pique, right on the edge of my right pinkie toe. I casually said something like "hey I think I have a pique." Immediately everybody was crowded around my foot to have a look. "Yep, sure is" they said and offered to take it out for me. Profesora Gladis said that her 7 year old daughter Marta is an expert and always takes out Grandmas pique. I really didn't feel like I could refuse and besides, what could go wrong? Besides, the chipa guasu was already in the oven.

I started to have second thoughts when Marta pulled a needle off the shelf that obviously wasn't clean. "That thing is going inside my toe, we should..." I am sitting in a little tiny chair with my foot propped up and Marta is going to work like an expert surgeon. It turned out the eggs had been in there for a while and before long she was pulling out little white eggs about the size of the tip of a pen.

Everything was going pretty well, Marta was pulling out the eggs and wiping the puss off with a rag. I was trying to be as calm as possible because there was a little boy about 4 years old that kept asking me questions like "Does it hurt yet?" "Whats wrong with your face?" He kept sticking his face in my gaping wound and saying "guakala!"(gross!)

Just as the kid was getting annoying with his questions I forgot all about him because he was right, it did hurt. I looked down and blood had filled the hole in my toe and Marta was saying that she couldn't get the whole thing out. By this point the sun had gone down enough that her brother Juan had to bring in their little flashlight. I was surrounded by little kids asking me weird questions and digging trenches in my toes with sewing needles.

I really wanted to just leave but it would have been rude and besides, I really cant pass up a chance to eat chipa guasu. Marta is wiping away bloody puss with her rag and all I can think about is eating.

Before long Profesora Gladis came over, took a few stabs herself and declared the job done. We all knew it wasn't but the flesh was too raw and swollen to keep working. I followed them outside into the cool night air, staggering, and enjoyed a plate of delicious chipa guasu

Happy Valentines Day

1 comment:

Krista said...

Good story... but keep us updated on what happens with that. Hope your toe is on its way to a speedy recovery... ~Krista