There are a number of folk remedies for common ailments that villagers swear are effective.Medical doctors have other opinions.The determining factor is one's distance from a doctor.If none are around,do what the villagers do to relieve the pain.
The two most common swimming accidents are encounters with jellyfish and with sea urchins.Jellyfish are most prevalent in the monsoon season when sea wind blow them toward the shore.
The Jellyfish floats on the surface,or just beneath it,dangling its long poison-filled tentacles deep in the water to sting fish that accidently brush them.When a swimmer comes in the contact with one,he is rewarded with a sharp searing pain,usually in a long line that reddens and forms a welt.The full effect of the burn does not become evident until four or five hours later.The pain can be reduced by bicarbonate of soda or steroid cream rubbed gently over the affected area.Even then it will continue the hurt and may leave scars.
Villagers treat jellyfish sting with a leafy vine that grows along the edge of the beach.They crush it to release its juice and then clamp it onto the affected area.The chemicals in the plant work to neutralize the chemical poisons of the jellyfish.
The other main affliction comes from swimming from sea urchin spines.The wader steps on animals and drives their sharp into his foot.The spines are brittle which makes removing them difficult.The pain comes more from the foreign object embedded in the foot than from the mild poison in the spines.Doctors will use a scalpel to incise them and tweezers to pull them out.
Villagers simply take a large stone to crush the spines arguing than the pain goes away quickly and that with time the crushed bits will work themselves out of the foot.Doctors suggest that pounding the foot with stone will only drive the spines deeper into the foot and perhaps cause a secondary infection.Both villagers and doctors agree that spines must be removed quickly.If the swimmer isn't carrying a scalpel with him and is far from a doctor,he may want to try a local method which,as many foreigners who have used it attest,seems to work without unpleasant aftereffects.The area should then be swabbed with mercurochrome and covered with a gauze pad.
One method to reduce the pain is to hollow out a large coconut and urinate into it.The foot is immersed in the urine and the uric acids counteract the poison.Obviously to make it more effective you get by with a little help from your friends.