Black Spiky Bits In My Foot

Today Emily and I had a day off! We had an interesting and fruitful trip to the market in the morning, and in the afternoon, we decided to go down to a neighboring mission and sit on the beach. I brought my Kindle and expected to have a short swim and a long, delicious read.

We got in the water and set off for the end point of a jetty built of large rocks that was on the right side of the swimming area. As we swam, the wind was blowing right in our faces, and the waves were crashing into us head on. It was a bit difficult to reach our destination, and before we got there, I started feeling the fact that I had had a plate of beans and rice and a Coca Cola just minutes before. Bad idea...

So when we reached the rocks, I said to Emily, "I'm just going to climb onto the rocks and sit here for a minute."

I put my hand out and touched the nearest rock. I started to put my right foot down on another rock.

"Ouch!" I yelped. I had stepped on a sea urchin, and now, nine black tips of its spines were lodged in my foot, letting out their painful poison.

My black-dotted foot, and the point at the end of the jetty where I stepped on the sea urchin

We headed back for the shore immediately, and I limped out of the water. As I got out, I saw that I also had a huge laceration from a jellyfish on my thigh, but my foot hurt so bad I couldn't even feel the jellyfish sting.

I sat on a rock and sent Emily to go ask the people at the mission if sea urchin encounters were dangerous to one's health. It hurt so bad I wanted to cry, and the hurt wasn't letting up.

Emily came back and said that the Haitians told her the best thing to do would be to soak it in pee. I gave a great burst of laughter. "I should do that, just to be able to say that I soaked my foot in pee in Haiti," I said. But as I sat there, it already started to feel better, so I said to Emily that we might as well read and relax for a little longer before we went home.

Emily found a dead sea urchin on the beach that we used as a prop

While we were sitting there, a woman named Angie came up and met us, and we had a lovely and significant conversation with her. It seemed such a God-ordained time--and it probably wouldn't have happened if I wasn't sitting there with a sea urchin problem in my foot.

About an hour later, one of the Haitians came and picked out all the spikes from my foot with the point of a safety pin. By the time I walked home, I could barely feel it, so there didn't seem to be any need to resorting to such drastic measures as soaking my foot in the yellow liquid.

So that's the story of me surviving a sea urchin sting!