Afternoon delights

This afternoon I had the pleasure of a surprise visitor, in the person of Xavier, one of David’s cousins. Coincidentally, he’s in Vietnam on business, and only learned about our accident recently. Although David has returned to France, Xavier thought it would be nice to come and see me so that he could report on my progress when he returns himself this Saturday. It was a lovely visit. Xavier is the first person from David’s family that I’ve really had the chance to spend some time with. They’re quite a bunch, I can say that much, both of the “branches” in question. No rotten fruit on THAT family tree! I enjoyed our discussion so much that the hours just dissolved away, and that long stretch between lunch meds and dinner meds seemed but a moment…

The doctor says that, to be safe, I shouldn’t go gallivanting about until he takes the stitches out of my leg, which would be in 10 days or so. That’s more than fine with me, as I’ll need all the time I can get to become adjusted to wheelchair / crutches. Between now and then there are plenty of other stitched-up places to un-stitch as well, and I can begin physical therapy here with the Vietnamese physical therapist. I feel much safer staying here where there are good doctors while I make sure there’s no infection in my leg. I’ll then be able to spend a little time in Cambodia before flying back to Paris, but in more comfort than if I were to rush myself out of the hospital sooner.

So here I am for another 10 days or so. I’m very excited, I should be getting my very own wheelchair in a couple of days. Starting very soon, it will be wheelchair races in the hallways. With myself, anyway. I was hoping to be able to race with David, but neither of us was in much of a state to do any such thing before he left. Ah, well, partie remise! Except it will be crutches-racing for him by the time I get back to France. I wonder who would have the advantage?

Don’t, by the way, be put off at my being excited about getting a wheelchair; anyone who has needed one will probably understand that I’m looking forward to being mobile, mobile, mobile! YES, I CAN go to the cafeteria for some coffee. YES, I CAN go to the terrace and breathe in some real air. YES, I CAN go to the ground-floor to buy some coconut juice in a real coconut…. Ah, I’m going to miss that coconut juice, it’s been my staple all year. Do you know that coconut juice is advised for under-nourished babies and children, to help get their systems kicked back in?

In other news…

Made a deal with some of the nurses tonight. They’ve been coming around more and more to practice their English or their French, and it brightens up my day to help them. But when they said “we’ll teach you Vietnamese”, I didn’t bite; I’ll be leaving the country in a couple of weeks at the latest, and I can already make them giggle with such useful phrases as “the pillow is sad” or “don’t worry, no pain.” (Funny that the first word, or almost, that I learned in both Khmer and Vietnamese should be “pain”…)

No, what I really needed, I told them, was… massages. My poor feet are sausages. So we found the perfect exchange: they come into the room from time to time with a folded up piece of paper and pen and ask me something or other, we practice spelling, pronunciation, grammar, whatever strikes them as being useful at that moment. When they have time, I get a foot massage.

I get to be a language specialist and they get to be nursing specialists, but both of us are doing something a bit unusual. I feel a sincere desire to help them out, because they’re really very lovely people, but their communication skills are practically non-existent in some situations. And nurses – in my limited experience – don’t seem to have the time or even the inclination to do much massaging, and these ladies seem to enjoy getting a bit hands-on when they have the excuse. And they get double time anyway, because our primary occupation during the massage is, of course, learning English or French.

In yet other news…

Watching the G20 unfold in London, I feel like shaking them all, telling them to be happy they’re not dead, to get on with business, listen to each other, cooperate, make concessions and have a good time saving the world. Move forward. Have love. Peace and love. Flower Power. I miss Peter Max.

CNN did a quiz on the street to see if Americans were able to recognize the G20 leaders, give their names and countries. One of the men they interviewed found it offensive that the journalists should go into the street and spend time and money demonstrating something that everyone already knows: yes, Americans are uninformed about world events.

I found it refreshing that someone challenged the journalists.

Personally, I’d find it much more productive for them to set up educational kiosks with free handouts so that the American (and French, and German, and British) public could take this opportunity to LEARN about the rest of the planet. Don’t remonstrate, educate.

Hey, I like that. My new catch-phrase. Don’t remonstrate, educate.

Remember, you heard it here first…

Good night!

Bonnie