One step at a time...

Thank you so very much, Jordin Sparks, for singing that great song;). 


Today marks one week in Maturin! Wow. It also marks the first day that I successfully used the buses here. It really was not that bad, though I was really nervous.  I took one from my house to the public hospital. I think the lady next to me thought I was weird because I asked her 3 times if I was on the right bus. haha. It was my second time venturing into town out completely on my own, and I feel kind of bad saying that but I guess its gotta be baby steps... 


Being here has been a weird experience for me. I hate asking for help and pride my self in being independent, so having to constantly ask questions about everything has taken some getting used to. It is a good change though and I already feel that I have learned an immense amount in this short time:)  


Tonight is the Miss Venezuela pageant- Senora Carmen is really excited about it and I am too! Should be interesting. People here really do like it A LOT!

I am going to be volunteering with the department of infectious disease at the local public hospital. The volunteer director wants me to make a list of goals that I want to accomplish and seems pretty excited about me working with them for 10 months. My first task it to present information about AH1N1 to students at my school in English and Spanish. I am not the public speaker, but and am going to have to learn...

The hospital was interesting. It is very similar to the ones I saw in the Dominican Republic, like many things in this country, except for that there is ac in the doctor’s offices. They waiting rooms for patients are outside and covered by awnings and the hospital is slightly dilapidated. The staff all seemed friendly, competent and excited about their work. I have been more impressed with public health here than in the DR and Argentina. There have been many commercials on tv about h1n1 flu and people seem to be taking it very seriously. 

Tomorrow will be my 1000000th attempt to open a bank account. Hopefully I will succeed! 

Maturin... la ciudad de...yo no se...

9/18/09

I arrived in Maturin yesterday.  From the sky it actually looks like it is in the middle of nowhere. It might be a relatively large city (650,000 according to Wikipedia), but it was hard to tell that from where I was. It looked rather tiny and the edges were distinct from the vast green landscape surrounding it.

Senora Carmen Elena (the lady I will be living with) was not home, so I decided to sleep. I was pretty tired because I woke up at 4:30am. I was not in a not deep sleep and heard a quick, loud knock at the door. Then I looked up and see Senora Carmen spurting out the fastest Spanish I have ever heard in my life. Holacomestcuanllegaaqui is more or less what it sounded like.  I was told that the Spanish is fast here but WOW, I can’t believe that any human can produce words that quickly, haha. She reminds me of Mrs. Brown a lot (that reference is for family members) and I think we are going to get along well. I am also hoping her rapidez improves my speaking ability some… actually a lot.  Her husband, Senor Juan, reminds me a lot of my grandpa. He moves very slowly, talks very slowly and has a very dry sense of humor. He is such a precious old man with lots of opinions about everything that he is very quick to share.

Her son, Guillermo y hija viven en Maturin tambien y ya conoci a su hijo. He is really nice and going to take me to his kids’ school tomorrow. It is an American school, so his kids learn English there. I think that I am going to be living with the Marcanos for most of my time here, though I have not decided. It does look like her house is pretty far from most things, but there is a bus stop close by that makes transportation pretty easy. So far I feel really good about it. The house is very nice and has good AC and reliable internet. It is in a completely gated neighborhood, so it is pretty safe. Those are all major pluses. They will also be cooking me comida tipica venezuolana which is really appealing to me. 

I will also say that Venezuelans have been living up to their super friendly reputation. I met Joselyn at the airport after our flight was delayed. (We went to take off and one of the motors stopped working, very comforting on my first Venezuelan airline flight. ) She immediately asked me everything there is to know about me and the US, asked me for my contact info. She also promised to take me around Caracas when I return and told me she would contact me if she is ever in Maturin. I thought that was really great—and something that almost never happened in Argentina. There are some women currently staying with the Marcanos and they again were extremely nice and welcoming. We talked for several hours last night before I passed out. It feels so good to be speaking Spanish again:)

I am pretty sure that classes do not start until mid-October, so I might have a month with little to do. This could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how I deal with it.  I am hoping to get to my bank account set up and my volunteer work started as soon as possible. But I want to do health volunteer work and there is a HUGE problem with swine flu in Maturin, so I might have to wait that out before I start. 

Hope all is well with everyone and I will update soon!

Para conocer a Caracas...

9/16/09
This morning was our third day of orientation at the Embassy. We were able to see downtown Caracas. Most of my experience has involved Las Mercedes and Valle Arriba—two of the nicest and “safest” places in Caracas. Downtown is quite a different story. We drove by Miraflores, the president’s house, which was quite beautiful. The security did not seem too intense which is not what I would have imagined. We also went to CVA, one of the binational centers where people can take English and sat in on a class, where I learned that Venezuelan names are ridiculous. We met Frangeline, Nosair (translation in Portuguese- don't go outside) and a girl whose name the other spanish speakers did not even understand. This will definetly add a difficult to trying to learn students names in my classes.
The centro of Caracas was interesting and I am glad we could see it. Surprisingly enough (knock on wood), I have seen nothing sketchy go down in Caracas. A security officer in the Embassy gave us a briefing that made me fear for my life. He told us that Caracas was last year’s murder capital of the world and the per capita gun ownership in Venezuela is also one of the highest in the world (Check the state department website if you want more details). You cannot even feel safe in the nicest places. While I guess that is true everywhere, it was just a little unnerving for everyone and probably contributed to us not venturing more than a few blocks outside the hotel.
The ranchitos or slums of Caracas are astounding. Unlike most cities that are completely flat, Caracas is in a valle and surrounded by mountains. The slums climb up the sides of the mountains and thus are completely visible. They are a constant reminder of the stark disparities that exist in the city. The houses are stacked on top of one another and go on for miles and miles. Some of the most well known are Petare and 23 de enero. The city also has landslides and earthquakes and because of the location of their houses, the people living in the slums are extremely vulnerable in any sort of disaster.                                                                                                                                                      I head to Maturin tomorrow, the city where I will spend the majority of my ten months. After telling numerous people, including Venezuelans, that I was going to Maturin, I recived similar responses. Most had never been, did not know where it was or did not have much to say. I am excited to get there. Though I have not recived the best responses, I have a good feeling about it. Hasta pronto!

I am here!

9/15/09
I am in Caracas. I arrived yesterday, slept the entire day to make up for mucho lost sleep on the flight and finished the first day of orientation today. As Anna and I sat in the Houston airport waiting for our midnight flight, we found out that there was a 6 point something earthquake yesterday outside of Caracas. We were not sure whether or not to consider that a bad omen, especially being that our visas did not arrive until the day before we left and the fact that the cab driver was holding a sign that said. “Karen Crane.” I am happy to report that we were not abducted and made it safely to our lovely hotel, Paseo Las Mercedes. Caracas is more beautiful than I expected and it is a shame that it is so dangerous because I would love to be able to explore the city more.


This post is a little boring, just to tell everyone that I am safe and sound:)