Post by richiebob on Oct 16, 2005 3:25:46 GMT -5
I'd post more (preferably more where I'm not wearing the eyepatch) if I had a site up where I could put pictures. Unfortunately, I'm not Internet-savvy enough to do that--or I don't know the right places to do it. This is my Facebook picture, though. Looks better when it's bigger, but I still think it's a really good shot.
If you're curious about the eyepatch, well, here's what happened:
I went to Africa (Lesotho, specifically) this summer with a buncha students from my school in the name of Habitat For Humanity--I'm sure some of you had heard of this organization. Well, we were in Africa for a month doing volunteer work for the Basotho--the people of Lesotho who are extremely impoverished. We were there to help build houses for them. The brick layers paid to do the work did most of the actual house building, while us students did a lot of the grunt work (i.e. spackling, carrying bricks, digging latrines, etc.) The brick layers actually taught me how to lay bricks (correctly), which was a lotta fun, but definitely hard work. While we were there to build houses, the biggest attraction of the trip was interacting with fellow youths our age who were also volunteering. We also helped rebuild a playground at an orphanage for children who had AIDS and were victims of neglect, abuse, etc. at home. Anyway, the actual eye-patchery happened the last week we were there. We were about to take off, and we had a big celebration at the site we were staying at for the month. My girlfriend and I were sitting by the bonfire, when this huge dog that the owners had ran by chasing after something and knocked her over. Well she got dirt/sand on her back (Lesotho is pretty much just sandy dirt and brush), and being the loving boyfriend that I am, I brushed off her back. Unfortunately, I got some dirt in my eye, which I thought would be fine--usually you get it out later, whatever. Well, it really started to bother me (turned out it cut up my cornea pretty bad), so I went to wash it out. With. Dirty. African. Water. Ugh! Worst idea ever. Yeah, I got an infection in my eye. My eye hurt like hell the remaining week, which sucked hard, but whacha gonna do, ya know (SEE A DOCTOR, DUR!)? Well, I got back to the States, found out from a doctor that I had numerous lacerations on my cornea, including an ulcer (basically a divot scooped out of my cornea), and a massive infection! Yay! Found out after a culture from the cornea specialist that it was some rare amoeba called "acantamoeba" or something to that effect--at least that's how it sounds phonetically. Well, I've had the patch on since June. At first, it was to keep the light out (light hurts SO much when cuts refract it improperly!), but that went away after a month. Now, I wear the patch because I want my eye to heal properly by not putting a contact lens in. The doc says it should be healed completely in less than two months. So, here's to hopin', right? I gotta say, though--I'm semi-thankful for it, because it's led to so many interesting conversations, jokes, and opportunities to meet people. I definitely think my experience in Japan has been enhanced by it.
Wow, that was probably more than some of you wanted to read, but kudos if you got through it. Anyway, if I find out how to get more pictures on here, I will definitely don you with more of them. Hope you like the pic, though. Oh yeah, that's me at Osaka Castle in (you guessed it) Osaka. Thought I'd do a "noble pose" as my friend Leah dubbed it.