It's been a long, long time

Life has gone on in Venezuela, though I have not really written about it. I don't think I will ever catch up on the last months in detail.

STRIKE:
My University went on strike yesterday. Heads of the university want to decrease the professors salaries by thirty percent, and the profes are not having it. Fair enough, they are not paid well enough as it is. No class this week for sure. I am gone next week and then there are only six weeks left before this is over. Craziness.

THE SUGAR LINE:
About two weeks ago, I entered a local grocery store to buy some chocolate to make some cookies. Instead of the normal calm I usually experience their during mid-day hours, it was madness with lines going all the way to the back of the store (this is walmart size). Why? I only had to look at people's arms to see them each carrying sugar, oil and milk, the rarities in Maturin. The experience left me in awe and I decided to join in the madness and see what it was like to wait in line for sugar, something I would never place any value on when shopping in the US. I waited an hour in the line. The sugar was cheap, and I gave a couple kilos to some people who I know do not have the time to be waiting in hour long lines to buy it.

CUBAN LOVE:
While my documentation and participation in Barrio Adentro has been slim to none, I must commend the Cubans. I have not met one I did not like and who did not make a point to make me feel at home in their clinic. I got to hear the history of Cuba as told by my dear friend and helper Doctora Lis. The history was unfortunately plagued with the US involving itself in Cuba's problems and ended with Cuba being blocked out of trading with most of the world and being left a poor nation. The Venezuelans I know talk about Cuba as if if were the worst country in the world, and as if they do not want their country to be like it, but the Cubans I have talked to have convinced me of the beauty of their country. They understand that Cuba is poor and will remain poor. It has no oil or crude natural resources that the global powers need. But the Cubans tell me that people in their country are happy with what they have.  Instead of constantly wanting more, more, more (at least in a material sense), they are happy to take the same as their neighbor gets, whether or not it is a lot. It seems so simple and I really like the idea of a society that is not focused on material possessions. They said that education and health are the most important parts of their society. Hopefully I will get to go to Cuba soon.

Ok... me canse. More to come tomorrow and the next day.