By Mamo
I learned something very important in the hospital. You can do a great deal with a smile, a touch, and a very small number of Spanish words. My words were “Hola” (Hello), “Como se Llama” (what is your name), “Dolor” (pain), “Gracias” (thank you), “Muy Bonita” (Very beautiful), and “Pi Pi” (no translation needed). Later Michele taught me “despacio” (Slowly) and “hija” (daughter).
The first night of the broken ankle I kept grabbing the workers hands and hanging on. Usually I would get a kind response back. Then in subsequent days, I would greet every worker with “Hola” and a smile. Especially in the public hospital in Granada there would be kind of a grudging “Hola” back on graveyard. Then I would pat them and say “¿Como se llama?” No matter what that person’s name, I would say “Muy bonita”. And it usually was. Everyone liked that. Spanish sounds so musical.
They were a little rough in Granada and moved my leg too fast. So Michele taught me “despacio.”
2 women in Granada that came to bathe me and change sheets were having a furious argument. No English at all. One kept shaking her finger at the other with furious words. The other kept slamming my leg around like a piece of dead meat. Finally I grabbed the first and asked her name, told her it was beautiful. It didn’t stop the argument, but she at last smiled at me and was nice.
Another weird thing about the bed baths in both hospitals; pretty good scrubbing of armpits, private parts and torso. No washing at all of arms and legs. The back would be washed but not dried. Immediately laid down with open gown and wet back on clean sheets.
The bathers seemed to be untrained in handling the injured.
All that being said, on the whole I was well cared for by kind people.
Adrift in Andalucía 