As I sat in my tent, feeling bad for myself, I knew I had messed up. My teammates and I had decided to go snorkeling for the day. I was the most burned that I have ever been in my life and my stomach was not feeling well since I was dehydrated. I only had a coke and 3 glasses of lemonade all day. I had not eaten anything because I am fasting during the day. I was in rough shape and feeling pity for myself.
I started to think back to the beginning of the day. I was given a warning. I was told by Jaco and Maria to make sure I kept sun screen and drank plenty of water. It is so easy to get a warning and to not follow it. Part of my reasoning was that I wanted to get rid of my farmer’s tan. Well, I know now to not use that as an excuse ever again in my life. The other fault was Solar Naught.
Solar Naught is a sun screen that my teammates had bought. We bought it when we got to Vilanculos since we did not have any. We were thinking we would use it. We have used it a few times and it hasn’t worked very well. It was all we had when we left and so we decided to use it. I put sun screen before I got on the boat. The thing that we found out later on was that Solar Naught is not water proof.
Upon arriving at the beach, Kyle, Michael, and myself decided to snorkel right away. We had a great
time looking at the fish and swimming. I discovered that it is harder to snorkel than I thought and got a few mouth fulls of salt water every once in a while. After we got out, we walked all the way around the island. It was about an hour walk. Someone pointed out that my back was looking very red and proceeded to put some more Solar Naught on my back. It hurt quite a bit since my back was quite burned. My team then ate and I drank my lemonade. Danny and I headed out after lunch and snorkeled again. I got out after a half an hour and noticed that the front of my legs were not burned. Colleen and I ended up laying down and talking, during which I was in the sun. Our team took a quick picture before we left.
Upon looking back at the experience after drinking a ton of water to fill better and Maria putting baby oil on my back for the burn, I realize how stupid I was. How in the world could I have not drank water and put more suntan lotion on? I am upset at myself, but at least I am not harmed. I will just be in pain for another 2 to3 days.
Side Note:
Back of Solar Naught bottle: Astronauts aren’t the only ones who need to be protected from solar radiation. Dow here on earth, sun loving solarnauts also need to take care. Fortunately nature provided the solution… SOLAR NAUGT
more like solar… NOT!
My team is leaving Monday in a vehicle to go back to Swaziland. We will be working with Care Points and visiting people.
