The Importance of a Film Education (December 16, 2013)

This is just a quick one to tell you all about an experience that Hermana Haymond and I had a few weeks ago.  So Hermana Haymond had never had her ears pierced.  I guess the rule in their family is that you have to wait until you are 14, and by the time she got to be 14 it just didn't seem all that important to her.  But here in Chile EVERY woman has pierced ears.  In fact, even every little baby girl wears earrings.  They do it in the hospital before they even send them home, if I understand correctly.  So anyway, earrings are a big thing here and you can buy them on the street for like 50 cents.  It's totally awesome.  So Hermana Haymond decided that she wanted to have her ears pierced.  We asked María Graciela, since she could explain it best in English, and she and her mom told us to go to the "clinica" because they knew we would need to do it someplace safe.

Well, after thinking about it for a while, Hermana Haymond decided that she trusted me to pierce her ears just as much as any Chilean CNA, so she asked if I would do it.  I wasn't originally completely sold on the idea.  Nor did I think she was very serious.  But the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to do it.  And so though I was still reluctant - and frankly freaked out - I agreed, with some conditions, of course.  

We figured that since we'd seen "The Parent Trap" with Lindsay Lohan, we had a pretty good idea how a successful home ear-piercing could be carried out.  So on P-Day the following week we went to a jewelry shop and picked out some sterling silver (we think) earrings.  I wrote up a contract for her to sign which relieved me of all liability should anything go wrong or should she just decide she didn't like them or what have you.  Also verbally included in the contract was that she never, ever say anything about it to the mission nurse, Hermana Balden, since she'd probably freak out.  (Those were my conditions.  Also that she didn't scream too loud if it hurt.)  So Hermana Haymond signed the contract and I had Hermana Razeira sign as a witness (which she did as a good sport even though she didn't really want to be involved in our crazy scheme).  Then, following the steps we'd seen in the movie, we sterlized our needle with flame (and alcohol), used an ice cube (well, ice pack, really) to numb the ear, cut up an apple to "catch" the needle on the other side, and got the earrings ready to go.  Oh, but first Hermana Haymond selected some theme music, "Humble Way" from Saturday's Warrior.  And then we were ready to go!  Wahoo!!!!

So it turns out that the movie wasn't quite as accurate as we would have liked.  (You know, we think we are all educated and informed because we've seen things on TV and in movies and then it all turns out not to be real at all - what is that even about???)  It was SUPER HARD to try to get the needle through her earlobe.  We had to keep restarting the theme music and stuff.  Hermana Call was filming and I think the first ear took like five minutes or something to do.  The apple was totally useless, so we ditched it after about one second.  Then I tried with the needle for a minute or so, until Hermana Call suggested I just push the earring straight through, since then I wouldn't have to try to replace the needle with the earring.  So that's what I ended up doing.  And finally the first ear was done!  And Hermana Haymond didn't even scream at all.  She said it didn't even really hurt.

Well, we expected the second ear to be a little easier, since we had the technique down and everything by then, but it actually took us longer than the first!  Like seven minutes or something.  At the end, Hermana Call cued up the Hallelujah Chorus.  But then Hermana Haymond had earrings!  And she liked the way they turned out, so I was relieved.

So if any of you need an ear piercing after I get home, I'm pretty much a professional now.  Though the contract did come in handy later when Hermana Haymond's piercings got a little infected....  She took them out for now  to get rid of the infection, but says that she will have them redone once she is home, because she did like having earrings.  I think for sure we wouldn't have to worry about infection if we'd been a little more sure about the quality of the earrings and maybe a thicker needle....

Anyway, that was our crazy P-Day a few weeks ago.  I know you can probably believe though that I wouldn't say it was the craziest P-Day I have had.  Just the most experimental!

Lovelovelove you all,

Herman