Last night the English Department of the Universidad Latina in David held an event to honor the authors who wrote the books that students translated as a requisite for graduation. I was one of the authors. Before the event Stephany Michell Peñaloza, who translated the first half of my book Despair! The Ill-Fated Last Voyage of the Admiral of the Ocean Sea, presented me with a bound copy of her portion of the book. She received a grade of 100 for her work!
This is Stephany:
She’s as smart as she is beautiful.
I know they say “pride goeth before a fall,” but I think this is pretty damned cool!!!
I don’t know what happened with the other girl, Deyreth, who was translating the other half of the book and Stephany either didn’t know or wouldn’t say. I stayed up late into the night when I got home reading the book. While it was, of course, in Spanish, I didn’t have a problem reading it because I knew what it said, anyway. It was just neat seeing it in another language.
The event was kind of funny. While it was for the School of English I was stuck at a table with nine people who didn’t speak a word of the language and my meager Spanish was pushed to the breaking point. One of the gentlemen at the table coined a new word, I believe. David is the capitol city of the Province of Chiriqui. Chiriqui is a unique place and I truly believe if the people here had a choice they would choose to be their own independent country.
The residents of the province are referred to as “Chiricanos.” This one gentleman, whose name I don’t remember, asked me where I lived. I said, “Yo soy gringo.” (I’m a gringo.) He laughed and asked if I lived here. I said I did, in Boquerón. “Ah,” he said with a sly smile, “then you’re a ‘Chiringo’.”
I can live with that.
