Yes, a Small Tongan Child Broke My Foot with a Cement Block

Two Thursdays ago, the week before school vacation, I was working in the garden with the students, since no school was happening and we need to do some serious maintenance before we replow for the summer planting season. I had specifically assigned certain tasks to certain classes, since I did not want 5 year olds wielding machetes and other such things. However, some of the students got a little overexcited and, in their quest to help me, undertook tasks that may have better been left to older, stronger students.

Since we’ve been having a pig problem we decided to reinforce parts of the fence with cement cinder blocks, which the class 6 students were helping me to carry over. One class three student decided this looked like fun, despite the fact that the brick probably weights more than he does. He missed the instructions of what we were actually doing with the blocks, and walked over to my house, where I had gone in to get some string, to ask. When I came outside he was resting the block on the gate of my fence, and I was in the process of telling him to put it down when he decided to pick it up again, and promptly dropped it on my foot. It hurt. A whole lot. I didn’t want to tell any of the teachers how it happened because I knew the child would get hit, and I tried to express that it wasn’t a bit deal, just an accident, but Tongan children are big tattletales, and the poor boy was punished Tongan style.

For the next two days I hobbled around, stopping to sit on the ground with my foot up on whatever I could find, icing it with the frozen soup and fish out of my freezer. True, I was probably up and about a bit more than I should have been, but sitting alone inside my house all day is very boring and I discovered it is possible to ride a bicycle with only one foot, although it’s a bit slow. I also realized that if there’s a place to hurt your foot, this might be it, as no one judges you for not wearing footwear when you go out (my foot was too swollen)- in fact, most people don’t regardless of any medical conditions.

Almost a week later the foot was still hurting quite a bit and pretty swollen, not to mention a lovely green color, so I decided to go to the hospital. I talked briefly to a nurse who told me it’s probably fractured, but that the x-ray machine was still broken (obviously) so they couldn’t check. She offered me some children’s tylenol, which is all the hospital carries, and when I told her I had some pain killers at home she handed me a bag of antibiotics. I asked her if she thought that it was infected, and she said no, that it’s probably broken. I then told her that I didn’t want to take the antibiotics since there wasn’t an infection. I don’t think she liked this show of independent decision making, and she made it clear that there wasn’t anything to do if I wouldn’t take their pills, so I decided to make an oh-so-graceful exit.

As of now, the foot is still sore, but it’s getting better. The swelling is down, and I can put weight on it. If it’s not better by next week I’ll give in and fly to Nuku’alofa to see the doctor and x-ray machine there. In the meantime, I am actively avoiding children carrying heavy objects and keeping my eyes peeled for rogue cinder blocks.