Yep.

So before picking up where I left off, it might be a good idea to update you on what´s going on in Venezuela. Some mad stuff has recently gone down and it would be a shame to go on and on about my vacation and not let you all know about this.

Money: At the beginning of the year, Chavez decided to devalue the currency. Generally, it was devalued from 2.12 to 4.3... 100 percent ladies and gentlemen. This means that tecnically, prices should sky rocket. I did go with a friend to by 4 razor blades and they cost $160 BsF... about 25 USD. Ahhh. That is the only thing I have really noticed as absurdly expensive so far,but Venezuelans are flocking to the store and buying any sort of good they can before all of the prices go up. A friend I know if buying a car and the dealer told him to buy it by the end of this week, because the price would be twice as much on Monday.

Electricity: There are also some major problems with electricity and there has been rationing around the country. I lose power where I live for 4 hours 3 days a week, every other day from 6-8am and 6-8pm. Apparently, the place that supplies about 70 percent of Venezuela´s electricity is in really, really bad shape so something must be done to conserve energy or the entire system will collapse. Thus, every city lose power to conserve.

RCTV: A Venezuelan TV station was shut down (again) because it refused to comply with some regulations that Chavez set up. This created some major protesting throughout the country, specifically in the Universities, where who are outraged that the station was shut down. There were some innocently killed students from the protesting, that led to more protesting. RCTV is the same station that Chavez claimed was involved in the attempted coup in 2002 and so he removed it from the ait then as well. I honestly have no idea if that was ever proven to be true. It is a sad, sad situation though.

Reading all of this, be aware that most of this is going down in Caracas. I live in Maturín. It is far away from the center of everything and much more tranquil. I live with an elderly couple (who I should really dedicate a blog to, as they are two of the most wonderful people I have ever met) who is extremely concerned with politics and make sure that I am up tp date on my information, but I do not feel the intensity of the politics so much in my city. It would actually be semi-easy to go day to day and not think about any of this.

Needless to say, politically, there is A LOT of tension. I will continue with my vacation story soon, just wanted to update!

Christmas vacation: part 1

It has been a long time since I have written and stuff has gone down, including Christmas, New Year´s, lots of traveling and work back in Maturín!

I would like to start with Christmas in Maturin. Strangely enough, Christmas is not as big of a deal here as New Year´s so it was hard to get into the Christmas spirit. Things Venezuelans associate with Christmas (gaita music, el plato navideño and buying new clothes) are also not things I associate with Christmas, so that also made it difficult to get in the spirit. The weeks before Christmas turned Maturin into a hellish place where it took an hour or more to get from the center of town to the Uni and where the malls became overwhemlingly crowded with people trying to find last minute gifts. I was not a huge fan of this and tried to avoid the center and shopping malls as much as possible. I was, however, a fan of the amount of parties I got to go to in Venezuela for Christmas. Starting in December I went to about one party a week. I ate A LOT and got to learn a lot about Venezuelan culture during the holidays. I also got to spend a lovely Christmas with the Marcano family. I love and appreciate their kindness a lot!

I then left Maturín to spend some quality time with some other Fulbrighters. It was honestly one of the highlights of my time here in VZ. It was nice to really get to know them better and to just get out and explore some parts of VZ.

Our trip started with some really beautful beaches in the western part of Venezuela, a trip to the mountain town Mérida and a trip to Los Llanos. The beach included escapades of three gringitas going around and making lots of random Venezuelan friends and spending our days relaxing on the beach. Good times. We spent New Year´s there which is a very family oriented event in Venezuela and I spent it with Anna and Emma, 2 gringas. We decided rather than being cooped up in our posada, we would go out on the town. We stumbled upon party after party of venezuelans celebrating the New Year. We made quite a spectacle of ourselves, but it was great fun.

We then took a bus habilitado to the mountain town of Mérida. We got our bus tickets the day of, and unknown to us, a bus habilitado is a bus that they decide to send at the last minute because of demand. It was also a microbus, which is a normal bus that goes around cities usually, not the nice overnight bus, so we knew it was going to be very unconfortable ride from the get-go. It was questionable at the time of arrival to get on the bus whether there were enough seats for everyone who had bought tickets. Thus we asked Antoni to shove his way onto the bus to assure that we got seats. There were three of us, so we ended up sitting in the vey back row of the bus. Unfortunately, the bus lacked shock absorbers. You know those 3-D chair things you sit in at theme parts that move around with the movie screen? It was kind of like that, only without the movie and for 12 hours. I remember thinking it was ridiculous that the girl next to me popped a valium. Looking back on it, she knew what she was doing. She was fast asleep and I was not. But we made it safe and sound, the most important thing.

Once in Mérida, we did some exploring of the city and I got to see the normal sites and eat the typical andian food. Mérida is truely a Venezuela gem. It is laid back, well-organized and has a culture all to its own. It is relatively safe by Venezuelan standards and the weather is relatively cool. We went to the zoo, ate some new foods, which I will list below.Coromoto is an ice cream shop with 860 flavors, and has the Guisness record for that. Of course, we went there. It has really odd flavors like octupus, salmon and ground beef and then more normal flavors like oreo and chocolate. I tried black bean, pumpkin and tostone (fried green plantain) and then Cri Cri, which is a delicious venezuelan chocolate bar.
Some other food I ate was:
Vitimina: Liquid cake, with an alcoholic twist. I am a huge fan.
Arepas Andinas: Like the traditional venezuelan arepa, but made from wheat flour rather than corn flour, really delicious
Pastelitos: Not so common in the oriente, they are like empanadas but smaller and slightly more tasty
Levantón Andina: An aphrodisiac drink they sell that contains about 80 ingredients


I will continue writing about my Christmas break journies again tomorrow. Just to get you excited, it involves anacondas and bollywood dancing.:)

Sorry VZ, I love you a lot.

I think my blog has officially turned into my "let's rant about venezuela" page rather than a fair and unbiased picture of my time in this land. This blog will be dedicated to a little bit of ranting but I promise to bring up the good next post.

I am frustrated a bit with my work. The level of apathy at the University where I am working is really unsettling for me. Higher education here is free and I think it is excellent that this opens the door for many people to study who otherwise would not be able to. At the same time, people can study when they want and for how long they want because it is free and I see some big problems with this. Students do not try because they do not have to and this creates a very low standard of learning. Many people do not see the value in the education they are getting because everyone is getting it and it costs nothing. The good and the bad of free education...

It is difficult to work in this environment and I feel like it is hard to get things done because classes are cancelled a lot. I applaud the teachers who are able to be productive in this environment, because I certainly am struggling.

Annie Waits

I feel like that Ben Folds song is appropriate to life here. Everything will happen tomorrow, the next day and you just wait and wait and wait for everything. If you are not proactive in Venezuela, or at least this is how it is for me in Maturin, I think it is safe to say that life might actually go by without too much happening. It would be fine and I am sure it would still be fine, but I am trying not to fall into that trap. Life has been surprisingly good as of late. No, I have not had tons of work, but I have had enough to keep me satisfied and have met and been spending time with some people I really enjoy.:) There is this bar by my house and I swear it is magical or something. Every time I go I have more fun than the last time. It is weird because they sell food and beer and there is no real dance floor, but we always have a blast there. It is officially my favorite bar in Maturin. The music is top notch and the drinks are reasonably priced. They also made a shout out to the americana last night!


I will say that I am not a huge fan of the machismo that exists here. Why is it the woman who should stay home and take care of the baby every night while the husband gets to go out and do what he wants? WTF. I don't think so. One of my friends told me it is not weird for a guy who is married or dating someone to hit on you and want to go out with you and that disturbed me. How can women just accept it and think it is ok?


Not all men here are like that, but the way that some think makes me really angry. We did interviews about STDs and condom use on the street and the general consesus of the older generation of men was that STDs and condom use is the women's responsibility and that they should not have to worry about that. I am happy to report that guys around my age were much more open and responsive to the questions and more educated on the answers. Hopefully a sign that society is progressing...


I also hate men interpret kindness  towards them as a sign of interest in them. Can't we just be friends? The dialogue that I say after we have a conversation and they begin to hint they want to date me (in my head, because I can never say it out loud) goes something like this: No, there is no way I want to date you. You are a jerk who thinks you can just take advantage of women of do whatever the hell you want. Yes, I am aware that you have a girlfriend and/or wife that you probably haven't told me about. Please do me a favor and never speak to me again. Thanks.


I also hate the cat calls. They are not as intense here as in the Dominican Republic, but seriously, is it necessary to holler at every woman you see just because you think she is pretty? Is that actually accomplishing ANYTHING productive? Sorry guys, but it is doubtful.


Sorry about that ranting, but come on Venezuelan men. Get it together.


In other news, I am going to the indigenous community tomorrow! FINALLY! I am super pumped about it and excited to see what we find.  Thursday mornings I get to be with the Cuban doctors and I have found the Cubans to be extremely warm, welcoming and comitted to their cause. They have taken time out of their days to show me their facilities and what Barrio Adentro is like. Their lives in Venezuela are not easy. They do not get paid extremely well and are kept busy all the time, but from what I have seen, they treat their patience very, very well.


I am trying to get everything together so after Christmas I can get my stuff together and hit the ground running with my work and really do something to help some of the great people I have met in Venezuela.


Things I want to do (I am writing them here so it gives me more motivation to really get them done):
-Create a course for students to take teh TOEFL exam, get students ready to apply to study outside of venezuela through whatever means possible
-Design a cinema course to teach for next semester to students
-Improve the conversation club for students, figure out more activities to help them improve their English
-Complete this project in the indigenous community, working to improve sanitation
-Learn to dance salsa
-Hike Roraima to do that I must...
-Get in shape first


Please check on me to see how I am doing with those goals. I need it.:)

A Canadian? In Caripe?

I was in the hospital, sitting around talking per usual when one of the nurses came in and told me she needed my help. I am not really qualified to do anything so I was curious what she could need. When we walked out I heard some of the worst spanish I have ever heard in my life and realized I was in the presence of a very, very old fellow gringo who was receiving treatment at the public hospital. It was surreal. There are some gringos in Maturin because of oil, an international school and such but not many 90 year olds from Canada who have been in Venezuela for 40 years. He also told me my English was very, very good and did not realize I was American until I explained it to him. I am assuming he does not run into to many fellow gringos here either. 

Health in Venezuela:

It appears to me that the Venezuelan diet is pretty unhealthy. Vegetables and fruits (minus a select few that are found in lots of places here...) are extremely expensive (though they are available) and there is a significant lack of knowledge about nutrition. It does appear to me that people who live in more rural areas eat healthier because they have lots of rice, beans, avacado and stick to traditional dishes. I am not criticizing. My country is called the fast food nation and I would even go as far as to say that the unhealthiness here can be attributed to American food culture influence. I also find food here to taste really, really good and the unhealthier the better.:)

Though my current experience with the health system is extremely limited and has involved time in the department of infectious disease of the public hospital, I have mixed feelings. The system is completely depleted of resources and lacks technology that is needed to provide medical care to the number of people who need it.  It takes a very strong person to work in these conditions and I have found many of the doctors to be distant and cold with the patients when I sit in on appointments. The appointments are really short and involve lots of talking and little listening. The patients do not generally have time to ask questions or talk about their experiences. Thinking about it I would probably be cold too. It is too hard to get involved in the lives of each patient, especially when each one has a story to tell. 

I still have not started with the controversial barrio adentro and really can not wait to see what it is like.

I spoke too soon.

Classes were SUPPOSED to start Monday but apparently students are not sure classes have started (I have been in the English director's office when they come in and ask) and those that do know just don't come. Professors have told me that it is normal for students not to show up the first week. I would go as far as to say that my new Uni is like UBA on steroids and it makes me sad for the students, especially those that really care and want to learn. I do not think I would make it in a University as disorganized and am amazed by their ability to persevere and keep working despite the challenges they face. Regardless of how much I actually accomplish here, they make it worth it:)

Today was an average day. I had been told by several people what was going to happen, thought I had a plan and shit hit the fan. Nothing that was supposed to happen did. Life in Venezuela. Strange thing is that I am actually learning to love it and not complain, or to freak out for a second and let it go. Who knew?


I was going to hang up a handwritten sign at the uni regarding conversation club when several people told me that I should not because people will talk about it. Gossip is HUGE here and it seems that everyone is worried that someone might one day gossip about them so they are really careful about everything they do. It really sucks and makes me want to just do ridiculous things to spite them so they can gossip about me all they want. I am unsure if this is just in Maturin or a nation-wide problem.

I feel that my tone here is spiteful, but I am actually really happy in Maturin.:)

I never thought this day would come.

Classes start tomorrow. Por fin! I am so happy about it... 2 months of bumming around and I finally get to do what I came here to do. Weird and exciting. I also have a semi-fixed schedule. Yes. I am ready to travel and get stuff done... here goes nothing:)

Also, I would like to officially declare that my life in Venezuela has been slightly disastrous up to this point. I have spent the past two months figuring life out and it has taken me a lot longer than I wanted. Nonetheless, I am here and will keep it going.

I am still unable to take myself seriously while dancing. Maybe one day.

Miss and love you all. Come visit!!:)