9. June 27 – July 9, 2011

Monday June 27, 2011    Sevilla

Freddie arrived safely in Sevilla yesterday and was able to join Rina’s belated birthday party. He has decided to sleep in the living room instead of going upstairs to Angel’s. I think this is a good idea. 

I arrived late last night after all the festivities had ended. But I successfully moved us out of Palmar and that felt good. 

Stephanie had made detailed movies on Freddie’s camera in both English and in Spanish explaining and showing how to clean Freddie’s wounds and change the bandages. After viewing them Sunday night, I was sure that this was beyond my expertise. The risk of infection was imminent and that scared me. I did not want to make any mistakes with Freddie’s health. I couldn’t do anything that night because we had to buy some more supplies needed for the process in the morning. 

So the next morning, after I returned from Angelita’s class, we went to my favorite pharmacy, which is near the house, and we bought the supplies. But I was too apprehensive to change the bandages myself and we realized that we had forgotten one item that we needed for the procedure and the pharmacy was already closed for siesta.

 After siesta I returned to the pharmacy to buy the missing item and to ask them if they knew of someone in the medical field who could change Freddie’s bandages. They gave me two names and right then and there I called the first one, a nurse named Cristina. The woman from the pharmacy talked to her too. Cristina said that she would come each day after work for 7 euros a visit. She would start that night. I felt much better. I knew that I had done the right thing.

Today we started the new month of our dance classes with Angelita. It will be my last month. We had a fantastic class. We have the Soleá completed up to the Bulerías and tomorrow Angelita said that she will start teaching the Tientos to us, a dance form which I have wanted to study with her for a long time. She is famous for her Tientos as well as for her Tangos and Soleá. At the end of the Soleá Angelita put in a small section that is melodic and lyrical and more freeform than the rest of the dance. It will lead to the Bulerías, which will end it. She sang this part and danced it so beautifully. Angelita is such an inspiration. 

She told us that she was up until 5 AM at the Fiesta de San Juan (where she lives) partying with family – singing and dancing. She was ecstatic and exhausted. Maybe this was why she danced so beautifully in class. She was very happy. 

Cristina the nurse came at 9 PM after getting off work from her two other jobs. She said that Freddie did have a little infection and told us to buy the Spanish equivalent of Bacitracen and also to buy some Linitul, a cloth-like something to put between the burn dressing and the bandages so that the bandages won’t stick and pull the newly healed skin off the wound. She will come again tomorrow. Freddie thought that Stephanie had actually done a better job of bandaging him than Cristina did.

Tuesday June 28, 2011    Sevilla

Angelita Vargas had a stroke today. We are all devastated. 

This morning she didn’t come to class and she didn’t answer her telephone when Lorena, the studio owner and a fellow student, called. This is very unlike her, as she is super-conscientious about letting Lorena know when she will be late or miss class. And she always makes the time up.

We called various people to try to get a phone number of family or neighbors, but no one knew any of the numbers. In the early afternoon, Lorena said that she would go to Angelita’s house to check on her. We were all worried because this was so unusual.

Lorena called me a little later. Angelita had been found unconscious at 1:00 PM and had been taken to the hospital for tests. I don’t know who found her. I had to look up the meaning of the Spanish word for unconscious, because although I was right about what it meant, I couldn’t believe it. We knew that this must have happened early, because she had not answered her phone when Lorena called to see why she wasn’t in class. Angelita, who is normally very punctual, did not show up at 10:30 AM. 

Lorena asked me if I could be the communicator to the class, to let people know that we would not be having class on Wednesday and to let the students know what was happening. She said that she would keep me informed. I have ways to contact everyone, some through email, one through telephone, others through Facebook. I have now gotten everyone’s email and become friends with those on Facebook who I haven’t connected with earlier.

It is 1:00 AM. Lucy stopped by in the early evening to talk about Angelita. She told me that the family does not want this publicized at this time because Angelita’s son is in Japan and they don’t want him to know yet or to worry about her and of course not to hear about it on the internet. And Francesca, Angelita’s niece, doesn’t want her mother Delia to know yet either. Tomorrow Delia is coming to Sevilla from a small pueblo where she now lives and Lucy plans to pick her up with Francesca and go directly to the hospital. No one wants their loved ones to worry. Delia had planned to come up to Sevilla to see Angelita’s show at the Peña on Friday.

Several hours after her first phone call to me, Lorena called me crying, telling me that Angelita had had a stroke. A few minutes later Lakshmi called crying, and asked us if we wanted to go to the hospital with her. We declined, feeling that this was a time for family and close friends. We love Angelita but we do not know her family, and it is a time for them. 

We have talked to Lakshmi from the hospital and the doctors at this point do not know if Angelita will live or die. When I talked to Lucy a little later. Lucy, who is at home and not at the hospital, told me that Angelita’s daughter is with her and that Angelita is semi-conscious and is paralyzed on one side. Freddie wanted to know if she could speak, but no one knew the answer. Freddie is identifying so much with Angelita, of course, having been through this himself. 

We are in such a state of shock. I am about to go to bed, but I wanted to get this out first. 

Monday we had a wonderful class with Angelita. We got to the end of the Soleá, with a beautiful “libre” (not bound to the compás) part leading up to the final Bulerías, which she had not yet taught. We had also planned on starting a Tientos this week, a dance I have wanted to study with Angelita for a long time. Well now I won’t have that chance. I am so grateful that Freddie and I decided to come to Spain now and not in the fall, as we had considered. I am grateful that I studied with Angelita when I could. 

I remember telling people, and I told someone here not too long ago, to study with Angelita now. She is older and is one of the last grand figuras (major, legendary artists) of Flamenco of her generation. I remember saying, “you never know what will happen”, but I never thought that this would happen. Angelita was dancing beautifully in class and everyone was in awe. She was scheduled to perform this Friday at the Peña Torres Macarena near us. We were excited about the show. 

And right now we don’t even know if Angelita will live or die tonight. And if she lives, her life will never be the same and she will be in recuperation for a long time. If she lives, hopefully Freddie’s recovery can be an inspiration for her. It can be done. 

But Angelita was unconscious for five hours, they say, before someone found her and took her to the hospital. No TPA for her, the drug that helped to dissolve Freddie’s blood clot in his brain. We don’t even know if Angelita’s stroke was a clot stroke or a hemorrhaging stroke. We don’t know how Spanish hospitals deal with stroke these days, but after Freddie’s experiences with hospitals here, I can assume that they are not as advanced as American hospitals. 

All Angelita’s students who know about this and her close friends are sending positive energy and prayers to her. This writing will not be published until her family has told the other family members, and probably not for a while longer, as I have other updates waiting to come out first. We are all in shock and waiting to see what the short-term outcome will be. I will try to sleep now.

July 5, 2011      Tuesday

Last Thursday Lakshmi danced in a beautiful setting, in the Jardines (gardens) Buhaira. It was outdoors in a courtyard of what look like a castle. When she first came on stage I felt that she was channeling Angelita. Lakshmi said that she was thinking about Angelita as she danced then. I really felt Angelita’s presence.

Friday, as planned Josh and Regina visited. They had taken Regina’s mother, son and nephew to the train for Granada, which leaves from Sevilla. They booked a beautiful hotel room by the Macarena arch in our barrio (neighborhood). They took a nap and then walked down to see us. We had originally planned to see Angelita dance at the Peña that night; but of course her stroke changed everything.

So instead of going to the Peña, we went out to dinner at La Madraza, the restaurant on our corner. We sat outside, on our street, and ate with a view of our front door. I was even able to get our internet on my iPhone. Later they stopped by our house and Josh played Freddie’s guitar, the one he has kept in Spain. It is now cracked and Freddie plans to take it home to fix it. Freddie was trying to get Josh to play the right notes and chords for the Paco de Lucia falseta he was playing. Freddie used to play it and he has it all in his head. It was fun. And I always enjoy seeing Regina. We get along well and have fun together. 

Saturday night, at the last minute, Freddie and I decided to go with Rina, Akahne and my friend Jane, to see the Orruco show, which was part of the Festival at the Jardines Buhaira. We are so glad that we did, because it was wonderful. Our friend Fabi (Fabiola Perez) sang and her voice has matured beautifully over the years. Her boyfriend Manuel (I don’t know his last name) also sang, and he sang well. She looks so happy and fulfilled. We were glad to see her like that. The guitarist, Ramon Amador, Hijo (son) was excellent too. Orruco, whose dancing has also matured, danced with his younger brother Miguel Angel. Orruco’s wife Karoleena did palmas and danced a little with them. I loved the family aspect of the show. The costumes, all black and white,  were totally coordinated and the show had a wonderful “put together” look.

This week I have had two great classes with Lakshmi. My stress has been reduced since Freddie is here and his burns are healing. There is a direct correlation between how I do in Flamenco class and how stressed I feel in the rest of my life. Even with Angelita’s stroke, I am still more relaxed and focused than I was when Freddie was wounded and not in Sevilla with me. 

Cristina the nurse has been coming every day and Freddie’s infection has cleared up. The wounds are healing nicely now.

Angelita is doing better. I have been to see her three times. Freddie was healed enough to come with me last time we went. He was beyond the risk of infection that he might increase from being in a hospital!

We went with Lakshmi, Miguel Angel and Rina. Lakshmi still had the rental car she had used to go to a job way past Madrid, more than 8 hours away, and she was just returning to Sevilla. Lakshmi is very close to Angelita and looks upon her as one of her anchors in Sevilla. She takes every minute she can from her overly full schedule to visit Angelita.

Angelita has been asking about Freddie every time I come. When she saw him, she held his hand and wouldn’t let go. She knows that he can truly understand what she is going through. He must be an inspiration for her too, knowing how much he has recovered.

Angelita’s son is here from Japan and is very attentive to his mother. He has a 9-month old daughter in Japan whom he is very proud of. We have seen her pictures. When he showed them to Angelita she had a big, beautiful smile on her face. 

I have now met a lot of Angelita’s family and close friends, as everyone visits at the hospital. Angelita’s room is almost always full and sometimes we see that she is very tired. There does not seem to be any regulations of visitors. A lot of people love Angelita.

One of Angelita’s family members or close friends is always chosen to spend the night with her, which is the custom here in the hospitals in Sevilla and probably all of Spain. Angelita is now able to indicate whom she wants.

July 8, 2011 Friday

Angelita is slowly recovering and I have been to the hospital a lot. I went yesterday with Lucy, Francesca, and another dance student of Angelita’s who is a nurse from Israel. We were able to visit the physical therapy room and to talk to the doctor. We found out that Angelita’s stroke was a hemorrhage and was healing but still had a scar and inflammation. The young doctor assured us that immediate physical therapy was not always appropriate for all stroke patients. They don’t plan on doing any physical therapy for at least two weeks after her release! This is very different from the US. 

They also haven’t even talked about speech therapy for her. Although she doesn’t seem to have aphasia, she is still difficult to understand and we think that speech therapy would be very useful for her. Angelita asked for Freddie again and today Lucy took Freddie, along with Francesca and Toshi to the hospital. Freddie is the only one who can really understand what Angelita is going through and I think it is comforting for her to see him and that he is doing so well. Also, as we know, Freddie is a very loving and charismatic person and I am sure that helps Angelita too.

Last night we had a meeting here at the house about how to effectively facilitate Angelita’s continuing recovery after they let her out of the hospital on Monday or Tuesday. Toshi, Francesca’s husband, has been doing Feldenkrais therapy with Angelita and that seems to be helping. After he worked with her last Sunday she was able to raise her right leg, which was paralyzed. The family was impressed. I was glad that I was there to witness it. 

I have started to take evening classes with Pilar La Faraona. After a 10-minute walk up calle Feria, I have to take a bus for 20 minutes and then walk another 10 minutes without shade to the Farruco studio, which is in a neighborhood far away from anything inside of Sevilla proper. After the first day I have been wearing a hat for the trip there and back, which helps a lot on the searing walk from the bus stop to the studio. But the course is only for two weeks and I enjoy Pilar and what she teaches. 

I have also been taking a Bulerías class with Javier Heredia twice a week, but he leaves to teach in the US next Thursday, so we only have two more classes with him. Last Thursday Javi’s cousin Julio and some friends came and added to the fiesta-like atmosphere Javi creates. We are studying Bulerías for Fiesta and we do part of it as if we are in one. It is fun and we are focusing on how to dance to the cante, the singing, which I love.

I continue my classes with Lakshmi and we are reviewing what I learned from Angelita so I don’t forget it. I am so thankful for these classes with Lakshmi.

Freddie has been here in Sevilla while his burns heal. They are almost healed. Soon he will go to Jerez to visit with David, Clara, Nandi and Pablo, who is visiting for two months from the US. I know he will have fun. I will take some time to visit too, but of course not as much as Freddie.

July 9, 2011     Saturday

Freddie’s burns are almost better. He no longer has to bandage his stomach and the nurse said that he should be able to remove the bandages from his arm on Sunday. Freddie plans to get a ride to Jerez with Richard Black, when Richard comes to visit on Tuesday. 

Angelita is continuing to heal and yesterday reported feeling an itch in her right arm, the paralyzed one. She was ecstatic. Toshi continues to work on her with Feldenkrais. Last Thursday they also sat her in a chair for a while, but she had a hard time supporting herself. They have not yet ordered physical therapy or even an evaluation for her.  Unfortunately that is also true of the speech therapy, but her speech is improving anyway. I have not seen evidence of aphasia, which is very good. But she is still difficult (but not impossible) to understand. 

Angelita’s mind is totally alert and present with perfect memory. She even remembers being on the floor after the stroke for 5 hours before she was found. Obviously she was not totally unconscious when they found her as we had previously been told. So far her spirits are good. 

A group of us are working on a way to receive donation money for her rehabilitation. Last night we had a meeting of people interested in helping establish a fund for Angelita’s rehabilitation expenses. 

We are in the process of forming an association or some other group, depending on what the law experts advise. We need a way for her to accept money, including from foreign sources, without Angelita having to pay taxes and without high bank rates, both of account maintenance and currency conversion. We are looking for anyone in Spain who knows banking or has an in with banks. We need financial expertise right now. 

Angelita will need a lot of rehabilitation that the hospital is very slow about organizing. The government won’t even start physical therapy until at least 2 weeks after she returns home. Spain is backwards. With strokes in the US they start right away. So we are trying to do that so she will have a better chance of a full recovery.  Of course we would like to see it sooner than later. Already, as I have said, the Feldenkrais that Toshi is doing is helping. 

After we set up our group correctly, we can begin to raise money for Angelita’s rehabilitation. We have already created a group email address and I will be in charge of starting a group Facebook page. Ligia will be in charge of translating it into Spanish and Akahne and Rina will translate into Japanese. Phillipa, Ligia’s mother, has offered to translate what we write into French. Angelita has a big international following.

Another group of concerned people is creating a fund to take care of Angelita’s basic day-to-day living expenses and immediate needs. This group includes Angelita’s daughter, her agent, and Lorena. They will set up a separate bank account.

Our group, which includes Angelita’s niece, sees a need for rehabilitation therapy as soon as possible so that Angelita will be able to teach and hopefully dance again! This is our goal. We feel that its importance may be neglected due to the Spanish way of thinking and the immediate needs Angelita will face when she returns home this Monday or Tuesday. 

Freddie’s recovery has been a source of inspiration for all of us, including Angelita. It shows that it can be done despite the doctors’ predictions! And Angelita is already much much better than Freddie was at this stage, so there is a lot of hope. 

Meanwhile, I am continuing my classes with Lakshmi and with Pilar. Friday’s class with Pilar was excellent. We have another week and then the course is finished. It still takes a lot of time out of my day to travel by bus to the Farruco studio, but it feels much easier than the first day.

Rina wants me to see the class she just started with Ramon Martinez. She is very impressed with his teaching. I may go on Tuesday. It would be too much to go on Monday and still take Lakshmi’s class at 11:30, Javi’s class at 4:00 and Pilar’s at 7:00. I am trying to pace myself. I also have to shop and cook, although Rina has been making wonderful dinners for all of us. 

Tonight Freddie helped Rina by doing compás with palmas and a cane, while she figured out the timing of some steps she had just learned. Freddie has also helped both Rina and Akahne with guitar, which they are both practicing. Rina calls Freddie the “Flamenco drill sargeant.”

July 9, 2011 Sunday

Yesterday I rode my bike to barrio Santa Cruz and did some gift shopping. I am thinking of our trip home. I went to all the stores where we have gone to for years to get gifts. They didn’t have some of the tee shirts that we wanted and I didn’t like most of what they had. All the prices have gone up instead of down in the crisis. One man told me that the Chinese had bought up all the cotton and that was why the price of cotton had risen. He assured me that his price raises did not reflect the full extent of the price increases that he experienced. I was surprised. This year I am hardly buying any gifts and what I do buy, with one or two exceptions, is inexpensive. But it is fun to bring back some tokens from Sevilla for some of our friends and family.

Today I finally sent out the Update 8. People have been writing to me to take it easy and asking why I am taking three classes on some days. I am not doing nearly as much as many of the Flamenco students here. I don’t see how they do it, although they are much younger than I am. For example, Rina has boundless energy and finds time for 3 or 4 classes a day plus practice time. She rents a studio and uses it regularly. And she cooks dinner here, although we often don’t eat until 11:30 PM. The dinners are worth it!!

I will rest when I return to Santa Cruz. I am here for intensive Flamenco and when I am not doing that I feel that I am wasting good time. However, now Freddie and I are planning some short vacation trips. I researched taking the bus to Ronda today, because Freddie has wanted to return there for several years now. He bought a wonderful belt in Ronda in 2003 when we went there with Paco and Pilar. 

We also want to go to Portugal. We may take that opportunity before we leave here this year. Rina and Akahne may go this weekend, to Lagos, but we will be in Palmar. 

Jo, the daughter of an English couple we met Greece several years ago, is doing a travel documentary for television. She wanted to meet both Freddie and me and at the time she contacted me Freddie was still living in Palmar. So I told her that she would have to come to Palmar to film Freddie. Then I described Palmar and she fell in love with it from my description. She wants to add it to the documentary as the final episode of seven that she has been contracted for. 

Jo will interview our friend Norbert there who flies the gyrocopter. He will take her for a ride. This will help advertise Norbert’s flying business. She will also interview Hector, because he too is a character. My motive for all this is to bring attention to the fact that some big tourist hotels have bought the beach from the city of Vejer and they want to build hotels on it. This would ruin Palmar. Last year they were passing around petitions to fight it. I think, and Hector and others agree with me, that a spot on the travel channel might be good publicity about the plight of the beach. Maybe we could stop the hotels. Palmar is one of the last little towns on this coast that does not have a giant hotel on its beach. It deserves this documentary. It is a very special place with special, artistic and magical people. 

 

SPAIN CHRONICLES 2011

May 10-25 Writings
May 18 Writings
May 19-22 Writings
May 23-29 Writings
June 5-10 Writings
June 11-16 Writings
June 18-19 Writings
June 21-26 Writings
June 27 – July 9 Writings
July 17 – August 3 Writings
August 5-6 Writings