coral

Coral =Bad time
I learned firsthand that some coral is not good. I went to the sami with some of the people in my village. If everyone is in the sami and it is not a small group, you need to go swimming with everything you have, your i’e, shorts, shirt, even everyone went with their shoes. If anyone had ever swam with a skirt before and knows how uncomfortable that can be, it is the same thing with swimming with an i’a.
There were a few dozen people in the ocean swimming, playing volleyball and rugby in the water. Everyone was having a great time and all the children around me were pinching me under water then saying “malie!” (shark).
All of a sudden the wave pushed me against the ‘amu (coral). My leg began to burn in pain worse than I thought possible. I knew I had to get out of the water, but my leg did not want to move at all. I tried to explain to a few of the others what had happened and they kept telling me how I was okay and I should stay.
I slowly left the water climbing the rocks nearby carefully as they were slippery from the slime that grows atop them from the ocean water. My leg was red with rashes and I had a few marks that looked like it was a bug bite.
I headed home, and showed the mark to my parents. They said that it was the yellow coral and that it has hurt them a few times as well. I hopped in the shower and went to bed with some bendryl. I spend the rest of the day laying in bed in bed in pain. I must really be a baby for not being able to deal with a little coral sting.
I left my room a few hours later for the faleuila and was stopped to eat some food. I ate my palusami and talo and was told that dinner would be ready soon. I don’t know how I am going to get used to so many meals on one day. I said that I was still not feeling well and going back to bed.
The next day when I awoke the pain was gone. The memory of where the evil coral was in the ocean remains, and my family reminded me to only swim by the sandy beach, not by the rocks so I don’t have this experience again.