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!