Napoleon "The Rubber"

Well, I just had my first sports-related injury since my peak as a tennis player at age 14 when my tennis coach made me clean my knee-skin off the court. I've been going to the gym ("WOMANGYM", it's called) to step aerobics class 5 days in a row for 3 weeks now, so when I got to the beach this Friday to help chaperone Amanda's youth group field trip my calves were a little tight. Don't get me wrong - I'm not doing much heavy lifting or traditional training. Most of my calories get burned dancing around with 3 lb hand weights to the beat of some Ace of Base or Celine Dion techno remix. Anywho, that particular Friday we'd finished up the class with a little ethnic dancing (Palo de Mayo) as a treat to congratulate ourselves on a full week of attendance. Fast forward about an hour and a half and I'm at the beach kicking around a soccer ball with 12 year olds. I didn't think I needed to stretch because I figured I was loose enough after all that booty shaking to tie my legs in a knot around my neck backwards. WRONG. Maybe it had something to do with being barefoot in the sand but I started to run towards the ball and heard a "POP"! Ouch.
The 12 year old who usually sells me fried fish and plantains at the cabana bar was nice enough to lend me a chunk of ice out of her fish cooler to put on my leg to slow the swelling. About an hour later, coconut in hand, I hobbled across the road to wait for the next pimped-out school bus to take me back to civilization. Now, a gringa with a gimp leg is apparently quite a sight to see. I kept having to answer questions about what had happened. The Nicas on the bus were quite generous with advice and suggestions for home remedies. The most recurring piece of advice that I got was: "tienes que ir a que te la soben". Which is essentially: "you have to go find someone to rub it". As a matter of fact, I learned that "leg-rubber" is quite a popular trade for Nicaraguan men, especially over the age of 60. Go figure.
So I ended up at the bus driver's dad's house because apparently he is a renowned "rubber" in Chinandega. We knew he lived near the Rosario Cathedral and that his name was Napoleon. Napoleon "el Sobador" to be exact. So as we approached the church, the taxi driver slowed down and asked a woman sitting in her rocking chair, "Are we getting close to Napoleon's house?" "Napoleon 'the Rubber?'" she replied. "Yeah, Napoleon "the Rubber." "Three doors down on your left."
We see a tiny, hunched over, wrinkly little raisin of a man sitting on a stoop drinking out of a plastic bottle of rum. You might have already guessed. It was Napoleon, my bus driver's 83 year old dad. He sat me down, asked me what happened, found the knot in my leg. He sent his grandson (great grandson?) down the street to buy some Vicks' Vapor Rub which he then slathered on my leg. The best part: he whipped out a glass Coca Cola bottle and started pulverizing my leg. Excruciating. This lasted about 15 minutes. Then I paid him a dollar went home.
It's Sunday, and my leg feels better. I'm almost walking normally. I probably won't make it to aerobics tomorrow, and it will be the first class I've missed in over 3 weeks. Boo.

<3
Elizabeth