The Lye Incident

A couple of weeks ago, Sarah and I ran into some trouble. We buy these blue barrels, which are recycled after their initial use, to make hammocks and swings and climbing structures for the orangutans. I went off to make some food enrichment while Sarah set to work cutting up the barrels. About 20 minutes into her work she called me over and started saying she felt some itching and burning on her hands and feet. She washed it off and we both decided it was no big deal and went back to working. A few minutes later she realized it was really burning, as some small blisters formed on her fingertips and small red dots appeared. I went over to the barrels and also got some on my hands and leg. Soon enough, yep!, it was burning. We called Rachel, who has a lot of medical know-how, to check it out. She said the barrels smelled like ammonia or acid and demanded that we go home immediately to shower and change our clothes. Sarah and I laughed all the way home at the absurdity of the situation. Acid!?!? What!?!? However, the first thing Sarah did when we walked through the door of her house was to sit down and eat a piece of pineapple. What a ridiculous thing; her skin is being corroded by some mysterious chemical, but first, we must eat this delicious piece of pineapple. We both got a good laugh out of that. After we showered (well, mandi-ed as it’s called here), changed clothes, ate lunch, and waited out a quick rainstorm, we returned to the clinic where Rachel had done some research. Based on the chemical letters on the barrels and our various symptoms, she deduced that the material in the barrels was lye. If you don’t watch as many crime-solving TV shows as I do, lye is the stuff they use to make bodies decompose faster. Of course, this was a concentrated dose, so not too much harm done. Lye, what are the chances! Definitely a 3-rd World Problem scenario right there.