So, last night we
ended up having a campfire with the locals who work here at the biodiversity
station along with us ‘scientists’ (yoga people were out doing cool yoga things). We
had a couple of beers and Roy made a rum punch with some local fruit, which was
divine - it was Marcus’ last night in the jungle so we all wanted to give him a
little send off. The fire was a typical men’s fire, so much wood and gas that
it was blazing hot and hardly any of us could actually stand the heat coming
from it. The circle we had made around the fire was quickly dispersing, but we
had some nice conversation and time to just chill – even if it felt like we were in a volcano.
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| Gonna miss your Marcus' big smile! |
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| Campfire was so hot we started stripping! |
Me and Hayley decided to go on a spy
mission to get some more beer from the kitchen, which was on yoga territory,
and they were back from their adventures by now. Our mission was successful - we upgraded to 'Super Spies' - we
got the beer, but in our haste to get out, and my lack of a headlight (so
that I didn’t draw attention to myself) meant that I missed one of the steps leaving the lodge and
completely twisted my foot in a catastrophic fall into the mud. And before you say anything, I had two cans of beer, two little cans of beer, oh, and a rum punch!
I howled with
laughter over how ridiculous I must have looked, and at how much pain I was in. The Super spy badge was quickly removed from me, I must have woken everyone at the lodge. Hayley however, in complete super spy mode, came to my rescue, thinking I was ok from my hysteric laughing, but proceeded to helped me walk back to our
new camp. Things became apparent quite quickly that I had fucked my ankle up
pretty bad… I was sure I hadn’t broken it but it was not good. Thank
goodness I had some beer to numb the pain (used as an icepack, and medicinally, who knew beer could be so useful). We stayed up chatting for a couple
of hours and in that time my foot had completely swollen up and I could barely
make it to bed. It’s the closest I’ve come to praying in a while – not that it
would work – but my last thoughts before bed were “please don't let this ruin my
last month in the jungle… Please.”
I woke up this morning, and I couldn’t even put my foot on the floor it was so painful. A
sudden rush of worry and sadness came over me. No way in hell am I not being
able to walk around and make the most of living out in the jungle. I held in my
need for the toilet for about 4 hours. A few of the gang were chatting outside the Platform when I finally had to raise my mosquito net from the intense heat it was creating in my little bed. Hayley was kind enough to ask if I wanted breakfast, "I don't want to say it out loud, but I genuinely can't walk, Hayley". As if someone muttering those words would make it an official problem. She insisted of bringing breakfast to me, her kindness was almost overwhelming, the pain certainly was. After eating, I couldn't hold it in any longer, I had to go to the toilet. Luix, one of the co
coordinators saw me struggling on the way so insisted on carrying me - this was potentially the most embarrassing 3 minutes ever, especially watching him now struggle. Am I really that heavy? Shit! I need to lose some weight. Fast!
Luix was nice enough
to arrange for me to move back up to the lodge so that I am closer to the
facilities, and more importantly, so he was most likely to never have to carry me again. A few people helped carry my stuff back up to the lodge which was so lovely, Zoe
has also moved back into the lodge bedroom with me, so that I’m not a complete loner. The
kindness of people today has genuinely been overwhelming, it's nice to be reminded that there are such kind people in the world, it’s also nice to feel looked
after, even if I am stubborn and don’t like to ask.
Fx
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