Sue left yesterday for Africa, and will be gone for three weeks, so I'll be in the house myself for a while. An opportunity, or so I thought, to reach out to the neighbours and keep improving my Spanish. But today I ended up speaking a lot more Spanish than I'd ever imagined...It all began yesterday when I was on my way home, and I decided to undertake a valiant rescue of a neighbourhood cat that had been cornered by a dog. The rescue itself was accomplished very successfully but, when the dog was gone and the cat jumped out of my arms again, its back paw left a little scratch on my forearm. The scratch was so small you could barely see it, so I was rather surprised to discover that it bled for ages, and then it seemed swollen when I woke up this morning. The pharmacist recommended that I go to "urgencias" at the local health centre to have a doctor check whether I needed an antibiotic to prevent further infection.
So off I went to the "centro de salud" where my Spanish got a bit of a workout, as I explained that I'd been scratched by a cat and now it looked swollen - my arm, that is, not the cat! (Note to Spanish students: don't mix up araña (spider) and araño (scratched) or you could end up misleading the doctor as to the source of your injury!!) Anyway, the end of the story is that I did get a course of antibiotics for the next seven days, and also a tetanus injection, as it had been ten years since my last one.
Back in the Farmacia to pick up my prescription, I suddenly realised that I was having a strange reaction to the tetanus vaccination: I felt strangely dizzy and shivery - as if I was going to faint. When I got home - where I'd planned a day of computer work for upcoming projects - I sat down to get my balance back, and promptly fell asleep.
I was awakened from my slumber by the doorbell ringing, and there stood a lady with a young boy, whom she introduced by the very unSpanish sounding name of Leroy. She immediately began to assure me that she was not a "ladrona" (thief) - which was all a bit mysterious at first, as I'd fallen asleep with my mind full of antibiotics and tetanus injections and rescued cats. It turned out she was a next door neighbour I had never met, and she had locked her keys inside her house. She wanted to cut through my kitchen and climb over the wall to get into her own house through the kitchen door!! This led to another Spanish conversation on the benefits of locking the kitchen door or otherwise... Now that I see how easy it is to break in from next door, I'll make sure my kitchen door is always kept locked!
Speaking of locks, my next Spanish adventure is going to be explaining to a locksmith that I can't get into my loo! I had some visitors from Scotland yesterday, which was fun, but after they'd gone I discovered that the toilet door downstairs had somehow got locked from the inside. So I'm going to have to find a way of getting it fixed. Hopefully we won't find one of the Scottish guests when we finally open it up again!
My Spanish also got some practice at the police station on Monday, when I went into Málaga to register for Spanish residency and to open a bank account. I'm so used to the constant struggle to renew visas in South Africa, that I asked the official how long my residency was valid for, and was surprised to be told "por siempre." (This means for ever - a phrase that's very familiar, as we sing a worship song on Sunday evenings at church that says God is faithful "por siempre.") It's one of the benefits of being part of the European community, I suppose. I was amazed how relatively easy the residence procedure was. Thanks for your prayers.
Tomorrow morning I have a ladies Bible study in Spanish, and on Friday I have a bilingual English-Spanish youth group. Rather more useful Spanish language, perhaps, than cats and scratches and thieves and mysteriously locked toilets.
Well, that's enough blogging for today; it's not too comfortable typing with a stiff arm!!! Watch this space for more Spanish adventures in November.
