Latrine Mugging Part 2

8 Feb
This is my 2nd blog entry for today, so you'll need to also read the first one for this all to make sense. But I needed to tell you all about this horrible, no good, rotten day and how it went from bad to worse. I got word today that a friend from my church back home died from a self-inflicted gun shot wound Sunday afternoon. He left behind a wife and 5 kids. There are no words to explain the sadness and grief and disbelief at news like that. He was a friend. He was our Youth Pastor. It's too much to comprehend, and I'm half a world away. I feel helpless to do anything. All I can ask is that you also please pray for his wife and family and the church that is left to try to understand and minister to the family.

Now for my news: If you read below, you know that I took a stumble coming out of the porta-john very early this morning. I was trying to make it sound funny, but it really was not. As I pieced together my memory of the incident I came to realize something scary. I don't remember all of it. I didn't remember how I hurt my nose and neck. In fact, I believe what actually happened is that after I stumbled to the ground the first time, I got back up (because I remember rubbing my left wrist), and then passed out. I fell a second time onto my face in the snow and rocks and wrenched my neck in the fall. When I woke up -- how long I lay there I do not know? -- I was on my knees with my face in the snow. It was then that I stumbled to my hut and back to bed feeling sick and thinking I might throw up. (I did not, thank goodness).

Anyway, it gets almost comical from here on out. My Chaplain assistant convinced me to go to the Aid station to get checked out. So off we went. I think they were bored and had nothing else to do today but make me the center of attention. They took me in the back and once they heard that I may have lost consciousness and hit my head, they went into severe casualty mode. I realize they were being on the safe side, but they took my blood, stuck me twice to finally start an IV, shaved parts of my chest to do an EKG. (In fact the most pain of the day was pulling the tape off of my chest and arm hair! Ouch). Then they put me in a cervical neck collar and strapped me down on a hard (and cold) back board and waited for the paramedics to drive me to the hospital. I am not making this up! I even heard the sirens while we went down the street 1/2 mile to the real ER. The doc at the aid station was worried about subdural hemotomas and needing a CT scan of my brain and all the bells and whistles. But the ER doc wasn't having any of it. He did an evaluation and checked me over and then said I was "fine." No X-rays, nothing. He discharged me within 20 minutes of arriving with a prescription for Motrin and suddenly I was out on the street walking to lunch! It was crazy.

My neck is still sore, but not as much. I realize how fortunate I was that my fall and injury was not worse. I could have laid there in the dark and in the snow for hours until someone found me. I'm also lucky there was about 3 inches of snow to cushion my fall on the rocks -- right on my face. I'm lucky I should have a broken nose! And how/why I came to when I did, I'll never know. Ultimately, I believe that God truly protected me this morning, as He was there with me outside the latrine at 4 am. The Bible says there is no place we can go where He is not there also, and where He does not see (Psalm 139). Thank you, Lord, for your hand of protection when I could not protect myself.