Annika and Auggie move to India: Scooter accident

Jenne's scooter... ooops! Sorry Jenne!

From an e-mail to my Dad:
I was in a scooter accident yesterday but I'm OK.
In the afternoon I went to downtown Whitefield to buy some apples 'cause we went to a friend's housewarming pooja (blessing) last night and I was going to bring an apple crisp. Anyway, I was going down a narrow road, wide enough for 1 car with a few feet on each side, so I stayed to the left of the road as a car approached. Well, a motorcycle coming from the opposite direction decided to pass the car - only on the wrong side of the road so he came head-on at me. I had no where to go so I put on my brakes, which led me to lose control of the scooter and I fell and skid.

As I laid in the street, trying to piece together what had just happened, I looked up and a kind man was lifting the scooter off of me. Then others stopped and joined in helping me. I checked my injuries (except my knee - I didn't have the courage at the moment to look at it, I knew it was hurt the most). An old village woman ran back to her hut and came back with coconut oil to apply to my wounds. Another woman on a scooter asked me to get on her scooter and she'd take me to her office where she had cotton and clean water. All while this was happening another man walked my scooter to a safe place, put my helmet in the trunk, and came back and handed me the key. 7 people would not leave my side until they knew I was OK. Finally I got on the back of a man's scooter (sidesaddle 'cause I couldn't bend my knee) and he drove me to a nearby clinic.

No one in the clinic spoke English, they escorted me to an examination room, and explained through sign language that the doctor was off having lunch and should be back soon. I kept second guessing being at this clinic and felt I should go to my own doctor. Especially if the doctor didn't know english and I expected that he didn't. So I sat on the examination table of a CRAZY examination room - one that looked right out of a horror film, like bad things were about to happen to me... I watched my right knee blow up to the size of a grapefruit, it was scratched and bleeding. I also looked around the examination room and there was one shelf that had boxes and boxes of syringes. I felt this doctor would come in and start draining the fluid out of my knee so that settled it... I limped out of the clinic, walked back to the scooter (scooter was fine except for some aesthetic damage) and drove back to Ozone.

My driver Gopi has been sick since Saturday, so I drove around Ozone looking for anyone with a driver who could take me to the doctor. I finally found one, went to the doctor, they cleaned me up with some iodine solution, wanted to inject me with painkillers which I refused, x-rayed my knee, and sent me home with anti-inflamatory pain killers and antibiotics. I won't take the antibiotics - they hand them out like candy here. So I came home and rested.

Last night we went to our friends housewarming, like I said. I limped around and people asked about the bandages. I was afraid to go home and take off the bandages. Eventually I did and I think everything will be all right. My knee will take a while and I believe my left big toe is broken - it's purple, swollen, and I can't move it.

But you know what?!?! I'm thankful. It could have been a lot worse, I wasn't going very fast, I slid on sand instead of asphalt, and I was wearing my helmet.