The Accident

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Saturday was a rainy day, but I needed to go to Chini for some shopping and the post office. So, in traditional China style, I was biking and holding an umbrella. This is common, most of the foreign teachers here can do it. I was a bit wobbly at first, but I got the hang of it well enough that riding on an unbusy road would be no problem. And the majority of the ride to Chini is a two-lane road through a bunch of fields. Thousands have gone before me--how hard could this be?

Well, since I returned from Yangshuo unscathed, I guess I was marked for disaster on a bike at a later date. Godfrey and I were riding along, chatting away, he in front of me. It's quite common for any vehicle (motorbike, car, truck, really big truck) to honk when they see you. I guess they think it's a safety thing, just in case you don't see or hear a monstrous vehicle with bad shocks and a bad muffler speeding in your direction. So the horn honked, I turned to find the truck, while steering to the side of the road (since large vehicles seem to think they lack this capability), and I braked a little. Well, due to the rain and my superb brakes, my wheels stopped but my bike didn't... exactly. It slid nicely and I ended up on my side. My initial thoughts were these:

1. What happened and where am I? Oh, good, in the middle of the road.
2. FIND TRUCK. Preserve self.
3. Truck is steering away from me and .... stopping???
4. Whew, don't need to roll to side of road. Wait, I'm trapped under my bike.
5. There goes the truck... Thanks a lot, buddy.
6. A lovely whimper of, "Godfreeeeeey..."

Godfrey came speeding back and helped me out from under my bike. My legs were shaking. My left knee had a wound nearly the size of the palm of my hand. I hurt. But I was intact.

After my legs stopped feeling like they would give out, we got back on our bikes and continued to Chini. My knee threatened a mutiny, but I won. Our first stop was a pharmacy. We managed to get me disinfectant (the non-stinging kind), gauze, and tape. I knew I had the ever-amazing, pain-killing Neosporin at home and began dreaming of it immediately. We went outside and I propped my leg up on a planter while Godfrey poured the disinfectant over my knee. The pharmacy worker brought me a plastic stool to sit on. We then taped me up and continued with our shopping.

My knee has been healing for a week, all the while I've been hobbling all over campus. With the healing and scab forming, bending the knee isn't an option. So for the past week, sitting (and thus typing) has proven quite difficult unless I could stretch out my leg or put it up. Godfrey has been over several times to look at it, fascinated. He's also brought extra medical supplies, including some medicated bandages that made me want to crawl out of my skin because the pain shot up and into every corner of my body; I discontinued those immediately.

The good news is that I can now bend my knee enough that I can climb stairs without swinging like a pendulum and I can sit normally. I still keep it covered when I leave my apartment because it's not fully scabbed over and I want to keep it clean. On the plus side, I have added 'gauze' and 'tape' to my vocabulary and the pharmacy people and I are forming a fruitful relationship.

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