Braaiing and Burning:

On Saturday about fifteen Hands volunteers went to spend the day at a place called Mac Mac Pools, we drove in three cars and bought food on the way so we could have a braai (a braai is a barbeque in South Africa). Mac Mac is a small bundle of waterfalls and rock pools quite high up in the mountains, we spent most of the day sitting in the warm shallow pools or jumping off the waterfalls into cold plunge pools. One of the volunteers called Sibusiso had his first swimming lessons and by the end of the day was confident enough to jump off the waterfall – about 3 metres tall – and into the amazingly clear water. We had a really awesome day out but when I got up on Sunday I realised I was a little bit sun-burnt… and when I say a little bit I mean horrible blisters and really sensitive, pink shoulders. That day I managed to get a t-shirt on so I could go to the African church that my group were going to and I even managed to put my bag on my shoulders while I went mountain biking with Dave, Paul and Mark in Mankele. My sunburn pretty much ruined the ride for me and later Cathy told me my burns were 3^rd degree, I didn’t know the sun could do so much damage!

Joes Voggy Blog Part 4: www.vimeo.com/joewilkins/vlog4
 

So on Monday I was told I wasn’t allowed to go out into the community with the team so I spent the day in my room trying to keep myself occupied and out of the sun. I was told by Carolyn that using deep heat muscle relief cream on my burns would hurt but it would draw the heat out of my skin. So we tried this and it was the most painful thing I’ve ever had to sit through, imagine putting your foot into an extremely hot bath but not being able to take it out again, it was like that on my shoulders for what seemed like forever until I was allowed to have a cool shower (which washed the cream but not the pain away). So I went back into my room and tried to get comfy for an hour or so until I fell asleep. I think I was caught out by the water; it washed away any sun cream I had on and was cold so I didn’t feel the need to put more on.

I spent Monday and Tuesday sitting on my own in my room either on my laptop or reading and putting more (evil) deep heat and other potions on my burns while the rest of the team spent their days out in the community.

I’m not sure how long it will be before I’m allowed out in the sun again, but judging by this photo I took last night it won’t be any time soon:

 

It’s so frustrating to think that the fun weekend had stopped me doing the real charity work that I was here to do… and over something as easily avoidable as sunburn… what a waste of two days… I won’t be making that mistake again…