staying healthy, unlike a couple others

Yesterday morning a woman in traditional traje got hit by a truck right in front of our school. We heard the commotion from upstairs and I ran down to apply my first aid skills as best I could. The woman was lying in the street but talking and with with no obvious serious injuries, but holding her leg. With my body full of adrenaline, I tried my best in spanish to ask her where it hurt, and to tell the others not to move her. She showed her left knee, which was terribly dislocated and probably broken. Even with the help of a translator from the school, no one seemed to listen to my requests not to move her. Like seemingly every person in the world without first-aid training, their first reaction was to move her off the road to get traffic moving again. They also tried to get her to stand, all while I tried to splint her leg with my hands. The woman was remarkably calm and not showing signs of pain for such an injury, which I interpreted as shock. She took it quite well as we literally manhandled her into a ta*i with me still just trying to keep her leg stable. (sorry, that letter between w and y doesn't work on this keyboard). Her two daughters got in the front of the cab and the driver of the truck, who had thankfully stopped, paid the fare. A friend of hers rode with the truck driver who make sure he went to the hospital as well. The standard of first-aid care and transport to the hospital were so bad, I'm only glad that it was "only" a knee injury, not a spinal injury. I found out later from others that she was from the countryside just visiting the city. At least the public hospitals in Guatemala are free, and she'll be able to get treatment. Medicines are not free, but hopefully the truck driver will pay for them. I have no idea what her name was or where she went, so all I can do is hope. And I keep wondering how she is doing. Automobiles are such terribly dangerous things to have roaring around a city where people are trying to walk. The other person referred to in the title is another student of the school, who had her appendi* removed this week in a private hospital here in *ela. I visited her for a couple hours this afternoon at her house where she's recovering. Sheesh. Mom, Dad, I am now even more careful than before when I cross the street :)