Pants

While in Thailand, we had the opportunity to paint the church's interior. It was fun and like any good painter, I got a lot on me. We were using "strong soap" (detergent) to get most of the pain off our hands. One of the paints was oil-based, however, and some team members suggested turpentine for my heavily painted hands. I was a little apprehensive, hearing distant warnings in my head about how turpentine is highly flammable and shouldn't be used on people. After scrubbing off my hands with detergent without making much progress and observing my other team members using turpentine without blowing up, I decided to use some too. The turpentine worked great and quickly got the paint that seemed apart of my skin off. I went back to painting and poured a little too much onto my lid and I tried to catch the pain with my leg s it wouldn't spill onto the church's floor. Most of my pant legs became doused with the oil-based which then stuck to my leg. After our job was over, I tried to get the pain off my paints with baby wipes and hand sanitizer with no help. Then I remembered the magical turpentine and got a baby wipe out doused it in turpentine and then started scrubbing my pant leg. It was starting to work so I scrubbed more aggressively, when suddenly my leg felt like it was on fire. The turpentine. I quickly began stuffing baby wipes up my Capri pants to get paint (and now turbine) which was glued to my thigh...apparently this action caused a bit of commotion among my team. One member suggested water and after assuring me it wouldn't make the burn worst she poured some on my leg and helped me stuff more baby wipes up my pants. The water helped, but after a few minutes the burning started again, except higher due to the spread of water and turpentine. Afraid of having to strip off my pants in this highly modest society, I remembered the scissors in the first aid kit and kindly asked my team member to bring my bag. As I ripped open a side of my pants to douse my burning leg with water, I now had the full team's attention as I was now hearing the would be helpful knowledge that its not good to put turpentine on one's skin, especially for long periods of time. Another team member donated his towel so I could separate the turpentine pants with my red thigh and I had the opportunity to walk around holding it and my tattered pants for the rest of our time that day.

Morale of the story: Turpentine is best used on material objects and not people.

PS -- After two showers and extended pool time, the paint is still on my leg.