Yesterday afternoon we were shocked to learn that one of the Russian men was stabbed by a stingray while swimming off one the beaches. The stingray pierced completely through his upper arm. I don’t know if the ‘blade’ remained lodged in his arm or came out when the ray swam away. I don’t even know what the stingray’s weapon is called. It was a crisis here, trying to find a way to get this man to a bigger hospital on the mainland.
There is a clinic here where the doctor decided the Russian needed more medical help than he could provide here. Because there had been some mechanical issues with a charter flight yesterday, there were more people than seats available on the one plane that was leaving the island. At first the Russians were told that their friend could not go on that plane, but luckily a spot was found for him. You simple cannot leave behind a person with such a terrible wound and poison running through his body! The flight was to Cienfuegos, but the man needs to get to a hospital in Havana. There was no guarantee that he’d get a flight to Havana.
The remaining Russians were back on the dock yesterday, very subdued and waiting for news of their friend. After talking to them a bit I said that I ‘hoped’ their friend would be okay soon. One of the men who does not know English seemed to startle at that word. The Russian who was talking to me translated for him, and he turned to look at me intensely and repeated ‘hope’ a couple of times while still looking at me. I said it back to him again. Hope.
In ancient Greek ‘hope’ is ἐλπίς ….elpis. Only in hindsight did I wonder if he might have recognized that word–if I’d thought to say it.
This morning when I got up the Russian boat was gone, so I’m hoping that means they got news of their friend being flown to Havana and are now heading there themselves.
