Marina Carenero
Bocas del Toro, Panama
The highlight of the month has been Spanish class for me.
I opted to continue for 3 weeks to stay with the other two women
in my class, and worked my way through the preterit, imperfect,
future and conditional tenses, none of which I understood back
in college. It’s becoming clear though that what I’m
missing is vocabulary, so I’ll have to start reading the paper
or find myself some children’s books to start to grow it.
But the confidence is coming. I also like the way the
classes are structured – the first two hours are grammar, and
the second two hours are conversation. The instructors are
all very young and enthusiastic, most from Costa Rica, and most
of them quite good at prompting and coaching when we make
mistakes. One of the instructors is a young man named
Andres that reminds me of the actor that played Frodo in the
Lord of the Rings -- tiny, bright-eyed, with a mop of
choppy brown hair. I keep looking to see if he has hairy
feet…he instructed one of the women in the class to watch South
Park and bring back a report, so we spent two hours discussing
the characters in South Park in Spanish.
A travelling veterinarian came by the
marina early in the month to update Barclay’s rabies shot and
have a look at poor little Maggie. I never thought it was
possible to see hollows under the eyes of a cat, but she’s
really a shadow of her former self. The vet proclaimed there
was nothing to be done for her but lots of love, and gave her a
6-8-month window until she heads for the “clearing at the end of
the path.” Bless her, she still purrs like a diesel, talks more
than ever, and lets me know when it’s bedtime, joining me on the
pillow and giving me about a 10-minute scalp massage before
settling down for the night in the cool of the bathroom floor.
As long as she still yells for food in the mornings and
evenings, and drinks lots of water during the day, it indicates
to me that her mood is fine and she’s not in any pain. As an
old lady, that’s better than most people do.
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