Mango Rash
Mango Rash
When I started working no one mentioned that Mango sap is highly caustic, that it burns the skin and that some people are allegic to mangoes. I was working away happily for 10 days before the first signs of the rash started appearing on my arms and legs. It was the second last day of picking too, so pretty bad timing.
The rash started off as a little redness like small hives that were a little itchy but nothing too bad. The next day pretty much every part of my body was affected the rash had spread to covering my arms, legs and chest completely. In a way it wasn’t too bad as it just looked like I got toasted by the sun. It was itchy as hell and sore to the touch now too. Luckily it was the last day of work so that was that. I hadn’t planned on even staying working for 2 weeks, I just decided to hang on until the picking finished as it was only another few days beyond when I wanted to get going again.
To celebrate the end of the season there was a bit of a BBQ/piss-up where the boss supplied all the alcohol that you wanted, not too bad really. I somehow managed to be convinced to hang around for another week, having been told that once you’re away from the fruit the rash goes away. The work would be pruning the trees, something I’ve done lots of and is easy work. Besides I was enjoying working, the people staying were on my team and it was a good laugh. Time off the bike was good too. The monsoon build-up while being hard was nowhere near as bad as I’d been led to believe. On the first of November right at the official start of the cyclone season we had our first storm, it meant knocking off work a few hours early and the lightning was good to watch. I wanted to see a few epic storms before I left the top end which was another reason to stay on.