Medical bulletin #3 – fish

We carry lunchboxes in the forest. As I ate my fish (alone, with radio), I felt this funny unpleasant numbness on tongue lips, then gums and all the mouth area. It lasted a while, then was gone. I wondered about the strange spice they must have used. When back to camp, Alice (the other researcher) arrived, sporting a uniform red color (even the pupils!), heart pounding, fearing a heart failure, which luckily didn’t occur. The others had an assortment of headaches, dizziness, pains. It was the fish. Trying to interpret the information we were given, first there was “yes, some people are allergic to that” (uh, at least it is cool, mysterious tropical fish..), then “well, it was just rotten fish” (no! come on, not even the charm of the exotic fish), finally a combination of the two: it is a type of fish which, if not cooked right away, produce a toxin which stays even if you then cook it (killing the bacteria that activated the toxin). Apparently the blood of the fish is used as poison for arrows (somewhere, as usual information is not the most accurate).

Medical bulletin #2 – wasps

Well, having realized I didn’t mention a few other exotic problems I had, eheh, and having lost all inhibitions about boring people with health issues, here they go.

I was attacked by wasps. Of course, aggressive highly painful tropical ones. I am told that if you are stung many times, what initially was only the pain of the sting, may become an allergic reaction. Well, I can confirm that. This was the third time, and I received about 6-8 stings. After I ran away from the bloody tree, I felt, besides the pain, slightly dizzy, heart pounding uncomfortably fast (130/min), sweating, weakness and a dozen more symptoms. I decided that in spite of the importance of following that group, I “would have to let them go”. In the end I lied down for about two hours, waiting for things to improve (was alone, didn’t have a radio, of course). After that, I was able to slowly make it back to camp.

Heart of wood

There are these pieces of wood, scattered on the forest floor. They are usually large, sleek, abnormally heavy and resistant to cutting. At first I thought they were termite nests, since when I managed to break open one, the wood had been replaced by earth, and inhabited by termites. But if you went beyond the superficial layer, you find wood, pure wood, exceptionally compact and smooth. I am not sure how these pieces came to be. Some theories (absolutely speculative) suggest that they were tempered by forest fires, or the wearing of time and rain (and other organisms). I decided to take a large one to carve a box. It is amazing how hard it is to cut through it. The saw gets stuck every little while, I need to put oil to ease its way, and still, it gets hot [I know wood, and I am used to cutting..]. Fascinating.