Update from Julie - Fish Spears Surfer

Update from Julie:

Sayulita, Mexico

As I write I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of John, Lobo and our friend Michele who is hitching a ride from Texas. I have been here in Sayulita for six weeks working, tending to the house, and ducking for cover in some of the crazy rain and lightning storms of the tropical season. I started working in a new school that is being referred to as a “project” by my director. The idea is to have a non-profit school with an ecological focus, which also serves as a cultural center and a resource for environmental sustainability in the area. So far we have the school
part up and running and I teach math, science and English to 3rd and a combined 4,5,6th grade class. We have six other teachers in the school for preK-6 and the cultural center is offering after school English and computer classes to the public school kids. There are lots of jobs for English teachers in town if anyone is looking for a project. When John gets here I will take some photos of the school and some of my students who are a mixture of Americans, Mexicans, Canadians, and Italians. I only have five 3rd graders right now (up two more from last week) and supposedly more are coming as their families return for the high season.

The story I want to share though is one of those “What are the chances?” kind of tales. Last weekend was the Mexican Independence day so we had a much deserved four day break from school. My friends Steve, Cassie, Mike and I piled into a car and headed south to La Ticla to find some waves. The first morning we paddled out and caught a few waves in the slop. After a bit I was just tired of the hot, extra salty water and the New England style smushy waves so I got out to hang on the beach with Cassie and watch. As we were sitting there another surfer entered the water, and minutes later was stumbling out of the water waving his hand looking desperate. As I walked towards him, he was pointing to something in his chest. Yes, IN. There was a two inch barb-looking thing sticking out of his check just below his right collarbone. As we sprang into action to lay him down he explained that a fish had jumped AT him and something on the fish had stuck. He wasn’t sure if it was a tooth or what. It looked to us like something from the dorsal fin of a needle fish. Who knows, really, but it looked like a two inch square stick with serrated edges and we had to get it out. Steve and Cassie ran back to the campsite to get water and a first aid kit and Mike and I stayed with the patient.

As he calmed down I started making small talk with him and I asked where he was from. Here is the crazy part: he was at University in Guadalajara but originally from Costa Rica, and he had been a student in one of the first schools I worked in as a Chemistry teacher, and he was on the soccer team I coached!! After a minute his face started coming back to me. He had been a senior at the time, and he remembered when I had made the team run up the hills of Escazu on the first few days of practice. Such a crazy small world!!

So now I had to pull the scale out of his chest. No options for hospitals or clinics very close by to do anything else really. We checked that it didn’t have a hook on the end, we couldn’t feel anything under his skin that might get stuck, so we all decided the best thing to do was grab it as close to the skin as we could and pull it out. It hurt him, but it came out cleanly. Then a little more cleaning of the wound, a bandage, and all set. Turns out he was camped right next to us! Crazy world.

Note: I am pretty sure that the chances of getting speared with a fish scale while surfing ranks around there with lightning strikes, so I am not deterred about getting in the water.