To start where I left off, my weekend was spent walking through Theni and seeing the local area a little more.  I also attended the senior school activities day where a cricket match was taking place.  There was a real buzz in the air and everyone was focused on the action.  You only have to observe the roads at rush hour through Theni to know that Health and Safety is not much of an issue here.  Spectators were positioned quite close to the pitch and we had to leap out of our seats and run a few times as cricket balls rocketed over our heads.  I think they wanted to make sure we got some exercise!      

On Sunday night, I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth as it was bedtime.  As I was leaving, I slipped on some water on the floor.  I managed not to fall over backwards into the puddle but my right foot slid straight into a ledge below the door and collided with it at enough force to certainly awaken me from my drowsy, pre-slumber mood.  Looking back, I would have preferred the splash.  The event was agonizingly painful, but it always is when one stubs one’s toe (as I have done often enough to know!) so I diagnosed myself with ‘a bit of a bump’ and limped into bed, fully expecting normality to be restored in the morning.  On waking up, it became clear that this was not the case as I still could not move two of my toes without wincing.  I hobbled downstairs to the family, who made me an appointment with a doctor.  I was reassured that this was a trusted, English-speaking family doctor who had trained at Harvard and was not known for frequent amputations!

A teacher from the school kindly took me to the appointment.  As it was a private clinic, the place was clean and the floor tiles were of a colour that one could still call white.  The doctor wanted to send me for an x-ray as he was of the belief that this was a fracture.  However, the radiographer (not gonna lie, I googled that) said my x-ray showed ‘a perfect foot.’ With nothing broken apart from my faith in friction, I was prescribed some painkillers, mango-flavoured of course! 

I spent the remainder of the day resting my foot.  Now, I am able to return to school to teach as the only visible sign of injury is a purple mark under the nail of my third toe.  I am told this is a blood clot (lovely, I know!) and you can all look forward to viewing a proud photo of it when I get back!  I can now put shoes on and I am walking better.  I certainly no longer howl like a failed ‘Indian Idol’ contestant when my toe comes into contact with solid matter.  I’m hoping this injury is instead of me getting violently sick but, knowing my luck, vomiting over the toilet into the early hours of the morning is still a very real threat.  We shall have to wait and see…

Will write later on in the week!

C x