Outdoor Concerts are a Hazard to Your Health

So, I rode in my first ambulance EVER here in Suriname. It happened on Saturday night after I got hit by a beer bottle thrown into a crowd at an outdoor Shaggy concert. Yes, I said Shaggy. He was here in Suriname. Telesur the only telecommunications company here in Suriname is celebrating 25 years and they brought Shaggy in as a thank you to the community.

He was really good too…at least he was for the whole HALF a song that I got to see. Corina and I had just arrived from a Christmas party. We were just starting to enjoy it when out of nowhere something hit us. It was shocking at first. You didn’t quite know what happened but then I turned to Corina who was really shocked. She had about 30 cuts down her arm and neck and we were both covered in glass which had shattered so fine it was like we were covered in sparkles. I remember saying we needed to find first-aid and then suddenly some guy in a Telesur shirt was pulling us through the crowd which by the way was parting like the Red Sea. You should have seen the looks on peoples’ faces as we passed. For one we were dripping in blood no way they were going to touch us. For two I’m sure we must have both looked quite scared ourselves.

In the ambulance the Suriname Red Cross immediately went to work and before we knew it we were moving. Mid-street another girl was put in the ambulance with us. She also got hit by the bottle – on the head – not nice! We arrived at the ER and were taken in immediately. While they cleaned up Corina who was hurt waaay worse than me I took care of paperwork and payment. Yes, we had to pay for health care, but the time from getting hit to being taken to the ER and getting cleaned up was less than two hours. When has that EVER happened in Canada? Cuts like ours would have warranted a wait of several hours I’m sure. I might be on side for this whole paying for health care deal. Save yourself the comments…I know, I know, it’s fine as long as you can afford to pay. Well, I’ll tell you, it was worth every cent. At least until the next day when I went to inspect my cut which for some reason hadn’t stopped bleeding only to find it still had glass in it. Apparently even when you pay the care isn’t always good… ha ha I joke. The care was actually very good and I’m not the one who really needed attention…afterall, I’ve cut myself worse with a kitchen knife. Corina on the other hand was a connect-the-dots of cuts, but she handled it like a trooper….at least until the nurse at the hospital went to clean her with iodine. Then it was another story. Funniest of all. Corina happens to have the whole thing on video and if I can figure out how to hook up video through U-Tube I’ll put it up so you can all see exactly as much of the free Shaggy concert as I did!!