Day 11

We had Spanish class in the afternoon today (1:00-5:00), because our Spanish teacher had to accompany one of the other volunteers to her first day of volunteer placement. We therefore got to sleep in for the first time since we've been here! It was very nice, I must say! I had a nice, slow morning - the kind where you lay in bed for an hour even after you're awake. It was wonderful just listening to the birds outside, the people on the street singing and playing guitar.

Spanish class this afternoon was good. We're basically studying verbs for the entire 4 hours, so class is becoming much more technical and repetitive. We're at an interesting point in the process of learning this language - we know the vocabulary, we just lack the words needed to string the vocabulary together! We know about 12 verbs at this point, which really doesn't allow us to say much. However, I can certainly see our progress, and see how all of the pieces of the puzzle will fit together (eventually!).

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but our house has a cat. I believe she was a stray that they took in. I normally don't really like cats, but Robyn is an exception! She is very friendly, and she definitely helps me to not feel so lonely! Robyn is pregnant, and when we first arrived here, they told us she would probably give birth within the next 2 weeks. She gave birth this morning (right before our Spanish class started!), but unfortunately, to a stillborn. It was very sad! Now, we thought that she should be having more than one kitten, and she wasn't showing any signs of giving birth to more kittens. She was also bleeding heavily. One of the BaseCamp coordinators took her to the vet, and they said she had 2 more kittens, but both were dead. We therefore have to give her Oxytocin injections every 12 hours to induce her labour (she needs to give birth to the other kittens, or she could develop a serious infection!), as well as a painkiller injection every 4 hours. Vet costs here are considerably cheaper than in Canada! It cost $20.00 for the injections, and the veterinary services! Hopefully she'll make a full recovery - it's sad to see her in so much pain!