I wake up at 6:15 a.m. The back door at Mama Irma’s is already open. I quickly go and check how she is doing. Mem always checks on Mama during the night when he needs to go to the toilet.
At 6:30 a.m., Jeanette comes to check on her. Immediately, the place comes to life! Jeanette is working the day shift and will come back around 7:00 p.m.
I sit with Mama Irma, and we chat a bit, although my Papiamento is not always sufficient.
From her room, I can see the old Samurai and the church through the window, two familiar sights. Tomorrow I will go to church again at 7:30 a.m., not that I am very religious, but Mama Irma always asks me to “papia ku Dios, pa forza”.
I stay with Mama Irma for a while.
Thelma arrives around 9 a.m. to bathe Mama Irma.
I tell Mem that I’m going to do some shopping in the city centre. Mem wants to come along and visit his friend Ronnie. I drop him off there and go to the city centre. My usual routine: withdraw money from the ATM. There’s new money! Brand new paper money. Beautiful images from the underwater world.
The ten-guilder note, mainly yellow, shows the black keizervis and Klein Curaçao on the other side.
The twenty-guilder note is mainly blue and shows the spotted eagle ray and Simpson Bay on Sint Maarten.
The fifty-guilder note is mainly green and shows a green sea turtle on the front and the bay of Grote Knip on the back.
The hundred guilder note shows the traffic light parrotfish and The Courthouse on Sint Maarten.
The two hundred guilder note is purple and shows a long-snouted seahorse and, on the back, the famous Emma Bridge, the ferry bridge of Curaçao. (I’ve heard this, I haven’t seen it myself yet).
Groceries in.
Didn’t see anyone I knew at the supermarket. I pick up Mem and chat with Vincent, Ronnie’s son. Vincent is a biology teacher at Mil and used to teach at the school next door, Maria College. Last year he taught at one school, which was wonderful, such a pleasant place to work. ‘I hope it works out the same way next school year, that I only have to work at MIL. It depends on the hours.’
Back home, I quickly put all the groceries in the fridge and sit down next to Mama Irma on a chair. We chat a bit and I massage her arms and legs with Rituals.
Thelma brings me dinner: rice with fried banana and masbangu, delicious, hopi diushi…
After dinner, it’s time for a siesta. I’m tired and haven’t settled into a good rhythm yet.
I prepare a document for Edgar, who asks me if I can do something for Brother Aurelio SBO. I sent him a message saying that I’ll be in Curaçao for two weeks. He knows exactly where to find me, haha.
While I’m sitting with Mama, a woman named Larissa comes in. She tells me that she has emigrated to Curaçao and is looking for a house. She is currently living temporarily in a friend’s house in Coral Estate. She used to be a funeral director in the Netherlands and thinks that Mama Irma has two or three weeks left to live. In the evening, I read a lot about dying on thuisarts.nl and zin.nl. The seven last steps when you are dying. One of them is sleeping a lot, which is what Mama Irma is doing, another is hardly eating or drinking, which she is also doing.
At 9 p.m., tired, I go to bed. I read a little more in Voel maar by Jan Brokken.
Earlier, I read De droevige kampioen (The Sad Champion) about Riki Marchena, a table tennis champion from Parera. Riki read many books in prison, one of which was “Also sprach Zarathustra” by Nietzsche. After Riki was released from prison, he went door to door washing cars. That’s how he ended up with Jan Brokken, who, while talking to Riki, recognised a quote from Zarathustra that Riki used in response to one of Jan Brokken’s questions. That’s how he got the idea to write the book.
Went to bed at 9:15 p.m. Tired.
