Today started out different. For starters, I slept in until 9:30 which is weird for me. Also, it’s the hottest day we’ve had so far in India and our power is out. All this to say, today took a rather different turn around 10:30.
We have roommates in our compound. They have 4 legs and a tail and like to rummage through our stuff when we’re sleeping. Rats. They usually travel in a pack, but today, one was on a solo mission. Nicole zeroed in on this thing and trapped his tail under the end of a mop with her cat like reflexes. She called me in for backup.
He was floundering amongst the potted plants and I looked for something to crush him with. Quick. Painless. Or at least that was the plan. I tried using a rock, but he kept moving so I needed something that covered more area. I grabbed a plant and dropped it on him. He wasn’t dead, just trapped. At this point, I knew I needed to act quickly because it was inhumane. I once again grabbed the rock and crushed him.
Side note: I’m aware that this all sounds somewhat barbaric, but this is India and mouse traps aren’t a thing. If something needs to be done, you get up close and personal, roll up your sleeves, and get to it. I grew up somewhat in the country and this isn’t a strange concept for me.
After dropping the rock the first time, I wanted to make sure he was all the way dead because the worst thought in my mind is causing anything to suffer. I dropped the rock a second time, fully confident that the job was done…and then it happened. This heavy stone fell over – directly onto my foot. In reflex, I pulled my foot out from under the rock which is where the majority of the damage likely came from. What emerged was my foot, bleeding and minus two toenails.
This paragraph could be graphic, so feel free to skip it. Initially I was in shock and didn’t realize I was screaming. It wasn’t a high pitched horror movie scream, but some weird throaty female lumberjack scream. My right big toenail was halfway removed and hanging on by the chunk of skin from the end of my toe, and my second toenail had been sliced from the cuticle all the way off when I pulled my foot from under the rock. Also on my second toe, my knuckle (do toes even have knuckles?) was already bruised, skinned, and swollen. It was bloody. It was gross.
This paragraph is funny. Don’t skip it. As soon as the initial shock wore off, my first thought was Dang it! I was going to get a pedicure in Chicago! Yes, I know. My brain creates its own priorities sometimes, and in that moment, that’s what my primal instincts felt was important.
Then ensued the first aid process. We are in India and we have well water with floaties in it. Words like infection, gangrene, amputation, and sepsis popped into my head. I quickly threw those to the side because flies were starting to swarm around my open wound, lathered up some hand sanitizer, and got to work. I noticed that as gross as the whole thing was, not much blood had actually fallen. My inner nerd cheerleader praised myself for what I assume is an abundance of vitamin K that aids in the clotting process. Go me. I cleaned and bandaged my toes and wrapped them in gauze.
As I sat with my foot before me, I began to actually process what had just happened. Here are my thoughts in order of revelation.
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I’m so nauseated I think I literally might pass out.
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I actually didn’t really like my second right toenail anyway. It was my least favorite toenail, and now it’s gone. So that’s a blessing, right?
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Still upset about the pedicure in Chicago because that was going to be the only boujee thing I did during my 24 hour American layover to Central America.
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OH MY GOSH I GET A NEW TOENAIL FOR CHRISTMAS!!!
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Crap, how am I going to shower with this thing?*
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I’m going to have to be extra careful not to accidentally pee on my foot.
*Shower situation: In other countries, showers are just a drain in the middle of your bathroom. We have bucket showers. Here is the process. You fill up a two gallon bucket from the well and you have a smaller cup that you use to pour water over your body. This month, we also have a squatty potty, so showering looks like standing 1 foot away from a hole in the ground where you use the bathroom, and mingling everything together beneath your feet as you dump well water over your body. It will be a fun logistical challenge.
As my incredible teammates worried over me and gave me moral support throughout this process, we began to talk about the incident and it dawned on me that I needed to file an incident report. At training camp, we got a talk on safety and the punchline from it all was “Don’t be a dirty idiot.” Dirty idiot equals avoidable risk. We heard stories about past racers who did stupid things like slapping a bull. I realized that as Seth Powell reads this incident report, I too will likely become a story of a dirty idiot on the World Race for future racers to laugh at in the midst of training camp. I will go down in WR history as the girl who mauled a rat and then her toes.
There is no spiritual undertones to this blog. It’s just a story of life on the race as Amanda Cadenhead. Honestly, I’m okay with it. Hopefully this blog left you with a taste of humor and not nausea, but either way, please pray that I don’t in fact pee on my foot and that it doesn’t get infected. Peace and love, people.
