Motorbike Accident

On December 17, Tré and I were involved in a motorbike accident. It currently ranks as THE scariest experience of my life (and Tré’s as well). We are thankful to be alive.

DESCRIPTION OF ACCIDENT:
As we were driving our motorbike at about 60 km/hr on one of the main 4-lane roads, a 15-passenger van pulled out into our lane as it was attempting to cross the road. I braked, swerved, and honked in an attempt to avoid it. It hesitated and I thought we were going to make it past, but at the last moment it continued forward and hit us from the left side with its front bumper. I can still hear the sound of the impact, and it sends chills through my body. It is amazing how many thoughts can pass through your mind in such a short period of time. I remember thinking in disbelief, “F***, I can’t believe he just hit us.” The impact sent us flying into the opposite lane with on-coming traffic. Thankfully, on-coming traffic did not run us over! The bike came to a rest about 3 meters (10 ft) from the van with the van’s bumper lying on top of it. Tré landed very hard in a sitting position about another 5 meters (15 feet) from the motorbike. I was thrown from the bike, flew through the air, and rolled on my side about 10-13 meters (30-40 feet) from the motorbike. As I came into contact with the pavement, I felt my head hit, and I remember thinking that I was glad I had my helmet on.

When all movement stopped, I could hear Tré screaming. My first thought was, "Shit, I can't believe we're alive." My second thought was a feeling of horror not knowing what I was going to see when I looked up for Tré. I was relieved to see him sitting and hear him screaming - he was alive and conscious. His leg was broken at the thigh and bent in a direction that is not normal. He was terrified. Not having looked at my body, but knowing I was unable to walk, I crawled to him. There were quickly 15-20 bystanders to help us. They called for an ambulance, comforted Tré, and gathered our belongings. After I reached Tré, I looked down at my throbbing foot to see that I had a 10-12 cm (4-5 inch) deep laceration running the length of my foot in which bone was visible. What I later found out was that there was a 7 cm (3 inch) laceration across the bottom of my foot as well. I could tell that we were both going into shock (shaking, losing consciousness, feeling cold, etc.), and kept asking bystanders, “Shock, you understand shock?”

An ambulance arrived probably within 10 minutes (although it felt like 30), and we were put in the back together. Terrified, we held hands tightly as we both struggled to stay conscious. We were taken to the Phuket International Hospital and treated. Our neighbors (an older English couple) came right away to be with us in the emergency room, and stayed with Tré when they had to separate us. I can never thank them enough for their support! It seemed like an eternity before we were given any painkillers, but the morphine shot in the butt, finally kicked in and brought some relief as we waited for surgery. We both went into surgery at the same time – a few hours after the accident.

DIAGNOSIS:
Tré broke the femur (thigh bone) in his left leg. Amazingly, he had no scratches or lacerations on any part of his body. They had to do surgery on his leg though to align the bone. He has a plate and 8 screws in there now. He was really brave through all of this even when he was in a lot of pain. Following the operation, he lost too much blood, and required a blood transfusion. There were 22 staples closing the incision in his thigh. In 6-8 months they will need to remove the plate and screws since he is still growing.

I broke two bones in my left foot (not toes) – the 2nd and 3rd metatarsals. They operated on my foot and put in two plates with two screws each, and spent an hour removing tiny bits of foreign material from the lacerations. I have long and deep lacerations on the top and bottom of my foot. The surgeon is mostly concerned about the lacerations with the possibility of infection. They have not completely stitched them up. Everyday, the surgeon removes the bandages, cleans the lacerations, and inspects them for any sign of infection. They have had a plastic surgeon look at my foot as well. Amazingly, I have few other scratches or bruises.

HOSPITAL STAY:
We were in the hospital for seven days. It seemed like forever. As the typical stereotype of hospital food goes, the food was horrible. We are eternally grateful to our many visitors! Several days, we had between 10-12 visitors. Most foreigners living here don't have family in the area, so it was nice to experience that people pull together when someone is in need. Thanks and appreciation to: Vichan; Marge & Archie; Angelica; Audrey, Skip, & Barbara; Ailsa; Deng & younger brother Deng; Kuhn Jan; Alan & Jeanne; Luisa; Samuel & his mom; Jeab; Louie; Deiter & Pawn; and Samantha. We can’t begin to thank you enough. Many thanks to all our friends in far-away places as well for the comforting comments, well wishes, words of wisdom, and/or loving thoughts. Especially, thanks and appreciation to my father for his daily phone calls and loving concern!

The Thai man who hit us came to visit four times as well and brought gifts. Apparently, this is unusual in Thailand. Often people just drive away from the scene. He has spoken with the police, has taken responsibility for the accident, and is making arrangements to have our motorbike repaired at his expense. So, we're fortunate to have someone responsible and caring involved in the accident.

The Thai staff at the hospital was very attentive and nurturing as well. My surgeon, in particular, was very comforting and attentive. Also, the International Liaison, James, was a tremendous help and made the whole ordeal much less confusing by helping with insurance, communications, etc. In addition, he even brought in his PlayStation from home to help keep Tré occupied.

We had an interesting distraction in the hospital for a few days. One of my high school students was admitted to the hospital following a motorbike accident as well! He was very lucky, and did not crash into anything – just wiped out on a rainy night. He sustained minor lacerations requiring some stitches to both hands. He was in the hospital overnight, so, Tré got to hang out and party in his room with five of my high school students. They ordered lots of food, played PlayStation on the plasma screen TV, and watched movies.

CURRENT STATUS AS OF 12/28/08:
We were released from the hospital on December 23rd. They were planning on keeping me in the hospital an additional 5-7 days. However, they agreed to release me with Tré on the condition that I return to the hospital everyday for my lacerations to be cleaned and inspected by the surgeon. Thank goodness for Tré’s speedy recovery! I was getting down, had basically stopped eating, etc. I wouldn’t have done well with another 5-7 days. The day we got released, I walked 3-4 km on my crutches, and took the bus to the beach. I felt incredibly better just being able to see the ocean, hear the waves, feel the warmth of the sun, and to get some exercise (which made me hungry finally).

We’ve been unable to find an automatic car to rent, so to get around for now, we have rented an automatic motorbike with sidecar. I can drive it since it has the sidecar attached on the left-hand side of the bike. I don’t have to use my left foot to shift or to balance the bike. Talk about “getting back on the horse.” It’s scary, to say the least.

Tré ~ The incision from the operation is healing well. They removed the 22 staples today. Tré was surprised at how relatively painless that process was. The surgeon said that he can start going in the water on Monday, so he is thrilled and looking forward to that. He is getting around on his crutches pretty well, and has been off of painkillers for several days now. There are no signs of infection. We just need to hope that the bone and leg heal properly, so they don’t have to redo the surgery. Please keep your fingers crossed or pray – whichever you prefer! The surgeon told him today that his wounds will heal faster than mine, and that he should be helping to take care of me (rather than the other way around).

Ashley ~ I continue to go to the hospital everyday for cleaning and inspection of the lacerations. Currently, there are no signs of infection and the lacerations continue to slowly (emphasize slowly!) heal. At this point, they have decided not to completely stitch up the wounds, but to let them fill in and heal naturally (due to fear of too much tension on the surrounding skin). They have had the plastic surgeon inspect my foot as well, but they are continuing to wait to see how it heals. When they unwrap it, it looks really nasty!!! This healing process of the wounds will probably take another two weeks. That’s just for the wounds. There are also the two broken bones in my foot to consider. Hopefully, they’ll just take the typical 6-8 weeks to heal (unlike the 5 months that it took my hand!). Right now, their main concerns are infection, nerve damage, and tissue damage.

Psychologically, Tré seems to be doing pretty well. He doesn’t seem to have any apprehension about being back on a motorbike, and is still asking for me to buy him a motocross bike! Boys!?! Me on the other hand, the accident keeps replaying in my head. I can hear the sound of the impact with the van. The constant throbbing pain in my foot is a constant reminder. I worry about the effect on Tré of breaking such a major and crucial bone. I feel guilty for not being able to prevent all this pain. Parental guilt. It keeps me awake at night – hence the fact that I’m up writing this at 4am. Thank you to many of you for your words of wisdom on processing this.

Overall, we are thankful to be home, together, and ALIVE! That is our current “motto.” We’ll continue to add updates on our progress. Please just keep sending your well wishes that it’s progress and not complications! :)

Photos of Motorbike Accident

1. In the emergency room before surgery. Judging from the smile, the morphine had finally kicked in!

2. Tré waiting for surgery.
3. Ashley's foot several days after surgery.

4. Bottom of Ashley's foot several days after surgery. Yuck!

5. Tré's thigh with 22 staples about five days after surgery.

6. Our terrific nursing staff!

7. Tré in physical therapy ~ using electrical current to stimulate bone growth.

8. Tré learning to use his crutches on stairs.

9. Christmas at the hospital ~ An unusual Christmas this year.

10. Ashley's surgeon with Tré on follow-up visit to remove staples.

Cultural Diversity

The amount of cultural diversity in Phuket is amazing! We are rapidly making up for the 10 years spent in (the very non-diverse) Bellingham. :) We frequently spend time with groups of people that speak limited English. I play beach volleyball with a group of people from Russia, and I constantly lose track of the score because they count in Russian! We have a group of friends from Holland, and another group from Hungary. Then of course, there are our Thai friends. We have a number of friends from England as well. They might as well be speaking another language for as much as we can understand them! Are they really speaking English? :) We have decided to see how many languages we can learn to count to ten, and to say hello and thank you in. We already know English, French, Spanish, and Thai, so we’ll try to add Dutch, Hungarian, Russian, Korean, and… Anyway, it’s pretty interesting to be surrounded by people from all over the world, as well as, so many locals. We’re learning a lot!

“Chan rian pood Thai”

I've been making a concerted effort to learn to speak Thai the past few weeks, and I can now hold a several hour conversation in Thai! I made myself several stacks of flashcards 3-4 weeks ago, and I have been practicing and memorizing them while at the beach. Then I practice speaking with several local friends such as one of the Muay Thai trainers at the gym around the corner, my massage therapist, folks from the neighborhood at our local breakfast spot, one of the Thai dive masters on the scuba boat, etc. I have found it more helpful to practice with folks that speak limited English because it forces me to figure it out. My Thai friends that speak good English are too quick to help. Anyway, I'm very excited!!! However, since the folks I’ve been practicing with are mostly male, I’ve had to make a point of learning a few key phrases such as “just friends” and “no, I don’t want to have s**.” Key phrases… :)

Leopard Sharks and Diving

Yet again, Tré has had the, “best day of my life!” He’s mildly obsessed with sharks (along with motorbikes and cable skiing – don’t get him started on those two topics!), and has been anxious to see his first shark while diving. His dream came true as we dove with five leopard sharks this week! Life seems to just keep getting better and better for him here in Thailand. We spent two days scuba diving this week as we worked on earning our Advanced Open Water PADI certification together. Highlights of the dives included seeing five leopard sharks, using the diver propulsion vehicles, diving to 30m (~100 ft), and doing headstands on the bottom (practicing buoyancy). Unfortunately, the visibility was not that great though. For the holidays, we bought ourselves a new toy – a digital camera with underwater housing – and had a lot of fun using that for the first time! As a result, enjoy the pictures and videos!

Interesting Tidbits of Information

Sorry it's been so long since we've updated our blogspot! We've been busy enjoying life here in Thailand. Our typical week consists of running on the beach, swimming, hanging with friends, watching sunsets over the ocean, playing beach volleyball, eating delicious Thai food, practicing speaking Thai, driving the motorbike, and getting massages. Overall, it's a good life! Oh yeah, there's a bit of school, work, and homework mixed in with all of that as well. Don't want you to be too envious! :)

Anyway, we've been compiling a list of some things that we've noticed about life here that we've found amusing, interesting, and sometimes confusing.

INTERESTING THINGS
There are elephant crossing signs along the road.

At stands along the road, they sell fuel in reused whiskey bottles for the motorbikes to use. There are also stands with big drums of fuel with gravity pumps. Typical, "modern," gas stations are full-service only (no self-service). With the motorbike, I spend $5-9 on fuel per week.

The record is currently 10 people on a motorbike with sidecar! There were so many it was challenging to get an accurate head count. There were 4 on the bike itself plus 5-6 in the sidecar which included a woman holding a toddler, a mother holding a nursing infant, plus 2 other adults.

For napkins at restaurants, they have rolls of toilet paper inside decorative tissue boxes sitting on the table.

Tré is getting so used to driving on the “other” side of the road, that he is now driving on the left in car racing video games, and is getting into accidents.

Quite often, public toilets are the “squatter” version. There are little hoses next to the toilets to use for rinsing after going to the bathroom. They can also be used for hosing down the bathroom when cleaning.

Language is an obvious difference when living here. People speak Thai. Most people (but not all) speak at least a little English. Written Thai uses a different script rather than the Roman alphabet. Many signs (roads, businesses, etc.) are written in both Thai and Roman characters.

Traffic drives on the other (left-hand) side of the road. In cars, the driver sits on the right-hand side of the vehicle. Most controls are the reverse of American vehicles – stick shift on the left, windshield wipers on the left, turn signal on the right. Although, the foot pedals are the same.

Houses do not have ovens, clothes dryers, or hot water heaters – it’s too hot here! Traditional Thai cooking does not use an oven, we hang our clothes to dry, and there are small water heating units on the wall of the shower to warm the water if needed.

There are wonderful outdoor markets every day of the week where you can get fresh produce, clothes (jeans, underwear, shoes - everything), DVDs, prepared food, household items, etc. Just about anything!

The Thai currency is called Baht. One US dollar equals about 35 Baht.

Cell phones are called “mobile” phones.

Can’t drink “tap” water from the faucet. To drink at the house, we buy huge containers (maybe 10 gallon?) of drinking water for 10 Baht (about 30 cents).

When writing the date, it is written as day/month/year rather than month/day/year.

Like the rest of the world (other than the US), Thailand uses the metric measurement system. Metric is so much easier, we cannot comprehend why the US has resisted converting for this long!

Thai cats are tiny! All our Thai friends keep asking, “Why is your cat so fat?” Tré gets defensive and says, “She’s not fat, she’s just bigger.” Our cat, Cookies, is 2-3 times bigger than the Thai cats. For those of you that were around when we were planning our flight here, the 8 pound weight limit for cats in the cabin now makes sense...

The area we are in is quite modern. There are large stores like Wal-Mart and Fred Meyer where you can find all types of things. There are American fast food chains like KFC, McDonald’s, 7-11, etc. There is a large 4-story mall with familiar stores such as Levi’s, Esprit, Bath and Body, Nike, etc. I was surprised to see all these big stores and familiar companies. As in the states, we are avoiding these places! There are plenty of smaller shops and food stands to get just about everything that we need.

Infrastructure is good. The roads are high quality. Houses have reliable electricity, water, and Internet access.

When women ride on the back of a motorbike while wearing a skirt, they ride "side saddle."

PHOTOS above: Thai and Roman script (yes, we're in a tsunami zone), a fuel station with gravity pump, water heating unit on the wall of the shower

That's it for now!

More Wakeboarding (a.k.a. "Cable Skiing")

With Tré’s past experiences snowboarding, skateboarding, and surfing, he is quickly becoming quite good at wakeboarding. He learned to jump off the “kicker” today – see the VIDEO! I have a few 10th grade students that are amazing at wakeboarding – flips, jumps, etc. Tré is aspiring to get as good as they are, and to have the muscle definition that they have! One of the boys took off his lifevest the other day, and Tré noted the “6-pack” that he had! :)

International Underwater Clean Up

We took part in an International Underwater Clean Up event a few weekends ago. Several scuba diving companies in the area participated by taking volunteers out to popular dive sites to collect garbage while diving. We spent two days (one night) on a live aboard boat out at Racha Yai island off the eastern coast of Phuket. We did six dives in which we collected lots of garbage underwater. The garbage mostly consisted of fishing line, rope, cans, bottles, plastic bags, batteries, and random pieces of plastic and metal. While diving around the coral reef, we carried net bags and knives with us to collect and store garbage. In addition to those six dives, we did a night dive for fun. The underwater “night life” was very cool. We watched a large moray eel hunt, stun, and eat a fish. Plus, we saw stingrays, pufferfish, cuttlefish, and much more. The trip was a great experience. We both really enjoyed sleeping on the boat, cleaning up the reef, meeting interesting people, hanging out on the boat for two days, etc. We both had the same thought, “I could do this more often!” (We just bought our own scuba equipment this week, so we’re getting closer to making that a reality!)

Attention Climbers!

We went and checked out one of the famous rock climbing areas a few weekends ago – Railay. It was a very cool area! If is on a bit of a peninsula that is landlocked by beautiful, vertical cliffs. You drive to a nearby city (Krabi or Ao Nang) and take a longtail boat around the point to Railay. Railay is a small village with no vehicles – everything is easily within walking distance. It has a very mellow atmosphere – with a few Thai-version “reggae” bars to complement the relaxed vibe. The village is on a narrow strip of land; there are beaches on the eastern and western sides of the strip of land. The western side has typical tropical beaches, whereas, the eastern side has a shallow bay and mangrove forests. We saw our first wild monkeys here! There are extensive cave systems to explore with beautiful calcite formations – stalactites, stalagmites, soda straws, popcorn, flowstone – and bats! There are a variety of accommodations ranging from an expensive, high-end resort for $1000 USD/night to bamboo bungalows for $8 USD/night. The climbing offers opportunities for bouldering as well as challenging multi-pitch routes. You can rent all the necessary climbing equipment and go on your own, or you can pay for lessons and/or guided service. This is definitely an area that we are looking forward to exploring more.

The last photo was taken at an entrance to a cave in Railay. Locals believe that the spirit of Phranang (princess goddess) resides in this cave. Before going out to sea, fishermen ask Phranang for good luck. When their wishes are fulfilled, they give offerings to Phranang at this shrine. Common gifts are flowers and incense, but usually the spirits of goddesses are offered special gifts, hence, all the carved wooden phallic symbols at the shrine. Judging from the large pile of wooden penises, we can presume the fishermen have been doing quite well! (Note: This has nothing to do with neither Buddhism nor Islam.)

General Updates

Tré was elected as his class representative for the Student Government. He’s loving being involved with it. Currently, they have started up and are managing a student snack shop.

Our car ownership was a short-lived endeavor! Unfortunately, there were issues with the car. While still in the states, we had agreed (in “good faith”) to purchase the car from a teaching couple that moved to China. They knowingly did not tell us about the issues. It was disappointing and frustrating on many levels. Anyway, we have decided not to purchase the car, so we’ll be relying on our motorbike, busses, carpooling, etc. A little bit more like life in Bellingham, which will feel more “normal.”

We had our first guest! Tré’s Fairhaven barber (Andrew) connected us with a friend/neighbor of his that was traveling through Thailand. Alice stayed with us for almost a week. We had fun exploring (to Railay) and hanging out with another “Bellinghamster.”

A beautiful (“sew-eye”) evening at Nai Harn Beach!

(Tré and his friends are in the water.)

Cable Skiing

On our island, there are not lakes big enough for waterskiing/wakeboarding behind a boat, so they have “cable skiing” here. I had never heard of it! Apparently, it's popular in other parts of the world as well. There’s a motorized cable that goes around in a loop around a small pond/lagoon. The rope is being pulled along above you rather than from a boat in front of you. They have jumps and rails that you can use to do tricks. We tried wakeboarding a few weeks ago. Tré absolutely loved it (as did I). Tré was better at it than I was due to more snowboarding experience! Although, we both did our share of face plants, and swallowing of pond water... yuck. I have some older students that are really good at it, so Tré is aspiring to learn to do flips, 360’s, etc. from them. These same students have been writing stories in class about the bones they've broken in the process of learning these tricks... I suppose that I'll be taking it easy so I don't break bone #3. Keep your fingers crossed for Tré.

Back to School!

We are at Quality Schools International – Phuket (QSI). It is an international school where instruction of all content areas is in English. It is different from an ESL program – I am not here to teach “English.” There are about 140 students in the whole school (preschool through 12th grade), and about 30 teachers and staff. I have 7-15 students per class. I see three different groups of kids during the day for classes. Students call teachers by their first names, so I am called, “Miss Ashley.” All instruction in the content areas is in English, but all students have a Thai language and culture class everyday. As an interesting break from teaching science, I am teaching 8th, 9th, and 10th grade literature and writing.

Tré is in the 12-year-old class with 8 other boys – no girls in his class! Due to international influences, classes are referred to by age group rather than “grades” up to the 13-year-old group, then they are referred to as Secondary I (a.k.a. 9th grade) up to Secondary IV. Fortunately for both of our sanity, I do not have Tré for an actual class. However, I do have his class for “homeroom” which gives me a chance to get to know his classmates, check in with him each morning and afternoon, and keep an eye on how his homework is going.

Being a school on a small tropical island in Thailand, it has its quirks. Sometimes the school is not able to draw enough power from the local grid, so there are occasional outages. This means no air conditioning. No computers. No fans. No copy machines. No lights. My teaching strategies have been modified – not using an overhead projector, etc. I plan on mostly using the whiteboard – something I didn’t utilize that much in the US.

The students are an amazing mix of students from over 20 or 30 countries – Germany, England, Italy, Slovenia, Korea, China, Thailand, US, Holland, Sweden, Canada, etc.! I believe Tré is actually the only student fully from the US. The first few days, I was in a slight state of “disequilibrium.” Many students don’t sound like you’d expect them to – for example a girl that looks Thai, but sounds German. Many of our students have parents (and/or step-parents) from different countries. Kids look like they’re from one country and sound like they’re from another. It threw me off at first, but was a good reminder not to make assumptions. For the majority of the students, English is not their first language. Most of them have lived in other countries and have traveled quite a bit. There are some beautiful mixes – Thai and Italian, etc. Also, most of the students love football (a.k.a. soccer) – yeah!

Pictures: Tré's 12-year-old class, 13 y.o. class, Secondary II, Secondary I, 5 pics of school buildings (taken early in the morning before many students had arrived), my classroom (not too exciting yet)