I was late to class because I thought it started at 2:40 for I don't know what reason, but I realized at 1:54 that class started at 2:10. I rushed to campus, found an excellent parking spot and began the trek to class. Sweaty, tired, and very oblivious, I crossed an intersection as soon as the walk light turned white.
It was all a blur, but I felt a bug on my thumb (random place) and I brushed it away. OUCH!!! There was a stinger in my hand. A very large one. Mind you, I was in the middle of a big intersection and had to keep walking. My eyes welled up with tears as soon as I got to the other side of the road and was not able to get the stinger out as it was still stinging me.
Right then, I looked up to see two policemen who were pulling someone over. By this time I was definitely crying, standing still on the sidewalk, and I couldn't get the dang stinger out of my thumb with just one hand. I didn't know anyone around and they all looked pretty busy because class was starting in 2 minutes. The policeman asked me if I was okay. I must have looked pretty desperate. Crying, standing still, alone, in the middle of classes changing.
Pictures on the UTPD website. They are intense. The ones I saw were actually in a car though!
This is embarrassing, but I was practically bawling and told him about the stinger and asked if he could try to get it out. Without replying to me, he immediately told the other policeman to abort the citation and that they had to get me to the clinic. ....What?!? He didn't even try to get the stinger out himself. (That guy getting the ticket lucked out!)
He went and opened the back door to the POLICE CAR and told me to get in. In front of all of the people on the sidewalk, I put my backpack in the backseat and got in. He told the other policeman to hurry with his business, opened the window between the front and back so that I could get some air conditioner back there. He kind of fanned me as he explained that he knew I was probably hot. By the way, did you know that police cars have hard plastic seats and absolutely no leg room? I told him I was sorry for being a baby and that he really didn't have to do this, but he insisted that it looked like it hurt. I did have a stinger sticking in my thumb, so I guess it did look painful.
So anyways, he turns the lights on and does a little whoop whoop siren sound as he pulls a U-turn in the middle of traffic on across a 5 lane road. I was looking forward as I hoped that no one I knew would see me in the back of the car. He wasn't being discrete about it either. Lights, sirens, the whole 9 yards!
We talked about their job and about their busy week and the nice policeman told me about how he would much rather help me out than give someone a citation. Anyways, we arrived in front of the health clinic, he got out and opened my door. At first I thought he was being polite, and then I realized that I didn't even have a door handle inside that cage. If my thumb hadn't been in so much pain, I probably would have been claustrophobic.
Anyways, Geo came to the clinic and picked me up soon after and drove me to class. So sweet! I got to class 20 minutes late. The whole ordeal from getting my thumb stung in an intersection to the police car ride to walking back into class only took 22 minutes! I went to class and learned that I had missed a quiz. I told the professor what had happened and he was nice enough to not count it against me.
I forgot to put ice or tobacco or whatever you do to stings to take the sting out. So, my thumb is currently 105 degrees, red, and swollen.
Moral to the story, be on the lookout for bees/wasps/hornets/whatever it was, in intersections on busy roads in the city. And be sure to cover up your thumbs! And if you don't want a ride in a police car, never ask a policeman for medical help. They clearly have no idea what to do.
On a more positive note, I got my hair cut today and it's nothing dramatic. So thankful!
Also, I never wrote about the Haiti trip. It was great and very rough. More to come later hopefully! I hit the ground running when I got home and this has been the first week that I've been able to breathe.
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