Well the last couple of days have been somewhat intense. Saturday (24th), Ben was sick again... This time he had a persisting fever, as well as other intestinal symptoms. It went up and down, and I made a trip to town to locate a thermometer, more oral rehydration salts, juice and some Tylenol - just in case. We decided not to use the Tylenol right away, as a fever is the body's natural defense to kill bacteria and virus. He let himself fever awhile, but eventually was too hot and achy so he took a Tylenol and felt much better. At 3am, I awoke to noise in the room and the sound of glass breaking. I asked what was going on and he said he had a fever again, and he was trying to take his temperature, and the thermometer fell on the tile floor and broke. We were both quite groggy at this hour, and without thinking about it, we just swept the mess into a small garbage bag.
The next morning, we went to the Internet cafe to google info up on the breaking of thermometers and what to do with the mercury inside. We were horrified to read about the levels of precautions to use, even with this small amount of toxic heavy metal. Back in our hotel room, we squatted down to look at the bathroom floor wih a flashlight, and sure enough... Little balls of mercury all over! We panicked, thinking of how we had walked through the bathroom in the middle of the night to pee; and showered in there in the morning...standing right in the
middle of the mercury explosion!
We spent the next three hours, carefully wiping up the floor with wet toilet paper; and fishing balls of mercury out of the tile cracks. We were careful not to touch it, and wore shoes the whole time. We threw out the broom we had used to sweep the mess up in the middle of the night, and any other questionable objects. We took everything and triple bagged it and then sat down to breathe a bit. We were both feeling highly agitated and worried about our potential poisoning/exposure. I don't know how toxic elemental metallic mercury is; if it can absorb through the skin, or if it emits any harmful vapors when not being burned. Our research was confusing as it didn't always specify which kind of mercury was being discussed, and there are several kinds ranging in forms.
After we grounded ourselves a bit, we came to our next problem... Where and how to dispose of the waste? There are no toxic waste centers; no poison control to call; no waste management of any kind. People just throw their trash right out into their yard (or more likely, their neighbors), and either leave it or burn it. Yes, they burn it all, even the plastic...
So we now have a dilemma. If it gets burned, it will vaporize the mercury... and that is real bad. We can't bury it because the water table is too close to the surface. The only thing we can think of (which by no means leaves us feeling settled) is to leave it in a pile amongst other trash... Which will still likely get burned or pawed through by someone, a cow, a dog a person looking to make use of that broom...
We asked our permaculture teacher what he thought and he didn't have any useable idea either. If anyone has any ideas or advice of any kind, please let us know!!!!
So all of this, and Ben still sick with fever. He had kept his fever down with Tylenol and was mobile though trying to take it easy. By this morning, however, he was still feeling bad. Afraid that he might have malaria or something, we talked to our permaculture teachers and one of them drove him to a local doctor whom she trusts. She has lived here 5 yrs and has also been sick and used this doc. When Ben came back, the doctor had loaded him up with antibiotics, oral rehydration salts, electrolytes, probiotics, prebiotics, and a diagnosis of salmonella poisoning. I was surprised by this and have my doubts, as we haven't eaten any uncooked food; and any eggs we have eaten have also been fully cooked- no runny yoke. Anything prepared on a surface with raw food would have been cooked. I am also skeptical because i would expect salmonella poisoning to come with profuse vomitting, and he never threw up....But then... This is India. Its certainly possible. We will see what happens the next few days and hope he gets better. He's doing fine, no need to worry. He's eating normally (and has been-another fishy sign of food poisoning), moving around and participating in the class. He's an extremely strong individual and his demeanor is positive.
So that is most of our weekend experience... We started our permaculture course today, and we will tune in again soon to let you all know how that is going. So far, we both love it and find ourselves thirsty to learn more! It's all really fascinating and fun and about half the group are locals, including two women! Dad, kendra and Mark- we are bringing a digital copy of the course material and handbook for you guys.. Loads of useful stuff I'm sure you will all love.
Again, please don't worry. We are both totally fine. We will let you know how everything goes soon enough.
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