Life after Mango picking

Many of you will have just come through the season of harvest. Thanksgiving, pumpkin picking and carving, apple picking, corn mazes. The usual fantastic photo opps for parents and fun for everyone. This has always been my favourite time of year and something I loved sharing with the kids. So none of you will be surprised when I tell you that I went seeking some sort of pick your own activity to fill the void in my life! To my great delight, a few months ago one of my new friends shared about his yearly Mango picking practice and I was hooked. Admittedly I jumped to a romantacized vision of this activity where my happy children and I plucked luscious, sweet smelling Mangoes while posing for adorable, scrapbook worthy, photos.
As the day approached, I was giddy with excitement. Someone mentioned something about being careful of sap burns and I smiled cluelessly. I also knew that my Canadian friend Kristin was allergic to Mango sap and had an unfortunate reaction to it the first time she went picking which is how I landed the job of catching Mangos for her husband Scott. In preparation for the day, I was to bring lots of water for drinking and washing sap off, long sleeves and gloves if I had them (which I didn't...at least no long sleeves that weren't also very hot to wear), and Scott would bring the ladder. Hmmm....a ladder....so much for photos of the kids plucking Mangos...oh well, the excitement was still overwhelming.

We drove out and parked on a cul de sac near the public bike paths that are all over Townsville. We unloaded the kids, the coolers, buckets, some gear and the ladder and cajouled the children into making the trek to the perfect tree. Scott had had his eye on this tree, and while the lower fruit had been picked, there was still lots at the top. The kids were still excited and willing at this point. Now Mango trees are much larger than apple trees and Scott gave me the option of picking or catching. I chose picking and climbed the ladder. No magoes here, would have to climb higher. Oh, and the tree was filled with green ants, an Australian gem that love to bite--hard. Climbed a bit higher, still no Mangoes. Once it became evident that I was going to have to shimmy out accross branches that were significantly high, while being eaten by green ants I wimped out. I was also increasingly aware that if my kids decided to take off I would be much too high to climb down to stop them. So I decided to be the catcher.

Now ripe mangoes are fairly soft and squishy, but mangoes aren't usually picked ripe because we have to compete with the fruit bats. Unripe mangoes are much closer to rocks in my oppinion. So Scott would pick, aim, and drop. I wish I'd had a catcher's mitt! While it only took one catch to realize this exercise would leave my hands severely bruised, my need to be tough drove me forward! I think I partially dislocated my ring finger at the knuckle somewhere within the first 20 catches. I realized it was more than just bruised as the afternoon progressed and the back of my hand swelled up and turned purple rather than the palm where I was catching. Anway, the ones I managed to catch cleanly went into one cooler, the once that bounced a little went into another. Then, occassionally Scott would tell us to get out from under the tree and he would shake branches that weren't big enough for him to climb out on. It was like a Mango scramble and my 3 yr old would yell 'Mango, mango, mango' as we would gather up the felled mangoes. The kids helped by sorting mangoes into the right coolers (called 'eskys' here) and generally running around. When they got bored Kristin and her daughter Maia entertained them with candy and running races.

In the end is was a wonderful day. We gathered over 300 mangoes for eating and freezing and while it was a much longer undertaking than I'd imagined, there was sweet satisfaction as I proudly brought home my bags of mangoes. I was tired, bruised and exceptionally content. Given the mangoes weren't ripe yet I didn't get to eat one yet, but I could hardly wait!

The next morning things started to go downhill. I woke up to a very swollen hand and some patches of red bumps on my fingers which later spread up my arms and chunks of my legs. And it was all very itchy. By Sunday I was covered in blistering sores that look just like a poison ivy reaction...these were Mango Sap burns apparently. By Monday I could no longer touch my fingers to each other because of the blisters and I knew it was time to head to the Doctor. Waited forever and had to pay for a very quick appointment to be told to take antihistamines and use calamine lotion, but that it shouldn't spread any more and if it did I should come back. The next morning I had many more blotchy read places and a rash that was now all over my neck, ears, torso, arms and legs. 6 hours in the ER got me 2 sets of pills, s2 creams and the likely diagnoses that I was allergic to Mango sap on top of the burns. And I wasn't allowed to eat any mango. Again, start getting better or come back. With my husband in the middle of studying for Med School exams, friends came over to help out with the kids and help cook as trying to do the usual things led to popped blisters which oozed and bled down my fingers. Not to mention I wasn't sleeping at all because of how itchy I was and that I was now crash weaning my 16 month old because of the meds I was on. By Saturday my eyes started swelling shut, and when I went in this time they said the next course of action would be to take me off all the meds in case I was allergic to one of them. Fantastic.

So here I am, two weeks post-mango encounter. I am still very itchy, but I can touch my fingers together again and I feel exceptionally blessed to have a chunk of friends who love me enough to play with my kids in the rain, do my my dishes, help with meals and generally love me even when I look like I am one afflicted by the plague of boils. I am also thankful for my mango picking trip. I didn't know at the time, but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Oh, and apparently mango sap and poison ivy are very closely related. Who would have thought?