Hospital Daze

So time doesn't exactly fly in a hospital like this, but I have been luxury equipped by Clara's and Johan's employers with a free wifi laptop, which has been very helpful. Also the occasional showings of Premier League football on the otherwise lame Brazilian TV-channels have been a blessing. In the beginning life wasn't easy, but quite soon I managed to regain my speech and my abilty to swallow making things a bit more pleasant. After about 5 days in the hospital bed, eating the same tasteless soup most days, accompanied by different juices I eventually got to my scheduled leftjaw surgery by monday lunchtime. I'll give you a Gordon Ramsey style summary to make things comprehensive:

3 1/2 hours surgery, roughly 20 stitches, 30 miniature titanium screws, 4 metall-plates, one removed piece of lead bullet, one left in for flavour, 3 1/2 hours rest. Reconstructive Jaw-Surgery: Done!

Simple as that really, however I had missunderstood a bit as I apparantly had two large bulletpieces left, one in each lower-jaw, they only removed the one which was located in the fractured left, whilst the other will do no harm where it is. What happens next is still not quite clear, I should hopefully be able to leave the hospital quite soon and then catch some rehab in a tranquil location, before my eardrum has healed and I will be allowed to get on a plane back home to freezing cold Sweden. My biggest dilemma now is what to do with my removed piece of lead, bear in mind it's not quite big enough for a coffee-table, however I'm open to all artistic and creative suggestions.

Well I'm a lucky man!!!

This is probably the hardest post I have ever written as the reality of the whole event hasn't really sunk in. Yesterday night I was celebrating (what I thought would be) my last night in Fortaleza with Clara and Johan, as we were going home around 2 AM, I was carrying Claras handbag when I felt somebody tug at it, before I had realised what was happening I tugged back and then I'm not quite sure what happened, the deafening bang went off right beside my leftear but I never saw the pistol? There was no real pain but as I ran from the loud explosion I realised the flood of blood pouring out from my mouth, I dropped the bag (and my brandnew brazilian flipflops...) sat down on a curb, caking myself in blood and trying to understand what had just happened without using to much energy. Luckily the bullet had taken a detour south-east leaving me with a slightly deaf left ear (which they say will be fine) a few exit wounds on both cheeks and a jawline like the elephant-man, but by the time the ambulance got to me I had lost extremly much blood. It took me quite a while to realise what a cartoon freak I had turned into but heads turned quite a bit as the bloody mess arrived at the first public hospital. Its unbelievable to think how lucky I was, shot in the head from pointblank range I was starting to wonder how much longer I could possibly live, but by the time I set my mind to surviving another one of the grimreapers attempts at me, there was no doubt in my mind I was going to get through those vital early stages. The biggest problem has been the fact that I constantly have to spit out a sticky bloody goo and that my throat hurts too much to talk, eat or drink. We spent roughly 9 hours in the public hospital when Clara and Johan's employers (who have been absoutly amazing as have Clara and Johan helping me through this) showed up and moved me to a fancy private hospital which is where I am now. They want to keep me here for 5 days to let the swelling go down, before they decide wether or not put me in surgery to check on some fractures and get part of the bullet out of my jaw. That's about all information I can give you now, but I will keep you all updated as I count my lucky stars!

Viva Brasil

Catching the early flight from Caracas wasn't a problem, however the direction of it was a bit annoying. Instead of just flying east to the pretty much paralell town of Fortaleza, I had to fly all the way south to São Paolo, change planes and then fly north again, making the "short" trip take roughly 16 hours. When I arrived in Fortaleza on the Brazilian north coast, just before midnight, I gave my friend Clara a call, after a few attempts I got through and found she was out and about, but we managed to meet up and she showed me to her downtown house which she shares with her friend Johan. The two of them are living here doing some kind of communal project which involves film, I haven't really understood what they do but I'm sure whatever they do is great. I've been living here with them for a week now also taking a three day break in the calm beach village Paracuru where we were able to stay in a friend of Johan's father's massive mansion. While in Fortaleza I've done some sightseeing by day (allthough there really isn't much on offer) and a whole lot of drinking and "Pre-Carnavaling" by night. It feels very good to be in a country which understands the importance of football, in one day I managed to watch my first United game since leaving Sweden as we humiliated the Arsenal and then directly after I went to the Estadio Castelão too see the pretty drab derby encounter (allthought the crowd atmosphere was entertaining) between the two local teams Ceara and Fortaleza which ended 0-0. I'm not sure how long I will stay here, but I'm expected to take part in football match tomorrow against the Fortaleza police-force, which apparantly tends to be rather brutal, before I head down the coast towards new destinations.