On the Claw and the Tootsie Roll.

At the start of our TAASC meeting today, Greg, my South African co-instructor, was joking about an ace bandage wrap on one boy's hand. The kids have been practicing splinting arms and legs and know some basics such as stabilizing above and below the injury, putting the patient in a position of comfort, and being able to check for circulation.

This ace bandage was supposed to be for his wrist, but it was only wrapped around the hand and fingers. It tightly bound the fingers together (even the thumb) into a hook of a hand. It was so tight that his fingers were stacked on top of each other. His hand was cupped like the front leg of a praying mantis.



It looked like the Penguin's hand from Batman. Except without the thumb-like thing:





(I wanted to get the web address for this picture to credit it, but couldn't find the link again...)

We called it "the claw."

This meeting was about safely lifting injured people; packing them into litters (heavy-duty stretchers); and then carrying them through the woods. We were practicing for search and rescue scenarios or evacuation situations. Our praying mantis said that he could only use one hand, but he was effortlessly flailing that wrist around like he was a jazz dancer. Seeing this, Greg replied, "Nah, man, hook that claw on." So he did.

We had the group carry the litter around some obstacles in the woods. They practiced passing the litter around trees, lowering it as a group, and squeezing it through tight spaces by putting it on its side. This move is called "tootsie roll" in some wilderness first responder books, and it's like moving a couch through a doorway. Or, imagine the top of your hand is the stretcher with the person strapped into it on top. Most of the time you can carry it flat with your palm facing down and in the same plane. Sometimes to squeeze it through a tight place, though, you have to turn it on its side. Take your hand and turn it so your pinkie finger is down and thumb up.

Greg introduced this maneuver, so the kids pronounced it with his South African accent, not knowing that it was spelled like that chocolately chewy goody, the "tootsie roll." I think most Americans would pronounce that candy as if it rhymed with playing "footsie" under the table.(Unless they are homeschooled and taught to say "bag el" or "Sandra Bull lock.")

Instead of this 'merican pronounciation, all but one sharp kid called it "toot see" like "tutu" or "toot that horn and see." Just like Greg. While they were planning, they'd say things like, "Okay, you two stand on that side and we'll toot see her through here." Or, "Wait until we're ready before you toot see roll her on the side!"

When the kids were learning knots, he taught the munter hitch.

Here it is:

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Munter2.gif. Got this link...)

So I would pronounce this "mun ster" (as in rhyming with Attila the "Hun" ster). By the way, isn't it great that I know phonics so well? I should write for a dictionary company. Forget those little symbols when you can explain it like this. How do you pronounce "belay?" Hmm, how about rhymes with tilapia "filet." Carabiner? "carpet cleaner." But I digress.

So munter hitch like "hunter kitsch" (you know, knicknack bears wearing plaid shirts and hats).

Greg, however, pronounces it as if it sounds like "moon-teh." I'm not doing his accent justice. I should ask him how he would rhyme it. I loved having all of the little TAASC kids run up to get checked off on their knots and yell, "I have the moonta heech!"

It's rubbing off, on all of us though. When we were packing backpacks for this weekend's trip, I said to Greg, "We mustn't forget the helmets!"

As if "we mustn't forget them whilst we pack the bus for our holiday in the cave." What a giggle.

Oh, the praying mantis/penguin/clawboy's hands could also look like t-rex claws.

Man alive, all of these things make me laugh.