Don't try this at home...

I got lost on public transportation for the first time in my life yesterday. I got on the 20 azul, which is the only bus that goes directly to my house from the University. Because the street I have to cross gives me such anxiety, I decided to stay on the bus because I thought it would turn around at the big circle behind my house and return quickly so I could avoid crossing the street. I was also really tired and sleeping as I went through this decision making process. When I opened my eyes, I realized we were leaving Maturin and we ended up in a place called San Luis, which is east of the city. I got lucky. The colector and the driver were really nice people and when I told them what happened they offered to take me to my house. After everyone got off, the picked up some friends to bring them into town and brought me to the entrance of my neighborhood. This situation could have been a disaster, especially because they realized I was a foreigner. But they were really nice and helpful to me, restoring some of my faith in the goodness of Venezuelan people. The colector was also the best I have seen, giving exact change, working hard enough so no one had to yell la parada and playing some of the best reggaeton mixes I have heard. While I do not want that to happen ever again, I do hope I get to ride with my 20 azul friends sometine in the near future and I now know that it is worth it to cross the street of death, rather than take a 30 minute detour to the pueblo of San Luis.
I have a bank account. After going through tons of crap for everything, it was super easy. I can finally ask for money from the US and do what I need to do.

I am giving classed to doctors at the hospital. It was my very first class in Venezuela. The room was super hot and I had no marker to write on the board. My face was read and I was sweating. I had also done minimal planning because I had no idea what level they were. Nonetheless, they were thankful for me being there and gave me some materials to use for next week. Doctors are also really good students, so that makes me happy.

I get to talk about my indigenous community project Friday, finally. And I am starting with Barrio Adentro  next week to learn about one of the social programs that Chavez set up so that people have equal access to medical care. It is controversial among Venezuelans and I am happy I get to experience it first hand.

I went to Margarita 2 weeks ago for a week with a professor, Reina, and her family. Margarita is super Venezuelan and luckily for me, her family had never been so we did everything there is to do on the island. We went to a water park, a theme park based on a famous Venezuelan comedian, shopped a lot and took many, many photos. They made me do Latina poses in some and wear big earrings. Definetly not my calling, but fun nonetheless...

I went to Caripe this past weekend. It is a town in the mountains about 2 hours from Maturin. It was amazing. The climate is much colder and the scenery is absolutely beautful. It is also a much smaller city, so it is safer and more laid back. They are famous for their strawberries and cream and La Cueva del Guachero, the largest cave in Venezuela. I am happy to say that I ate starwberries and cream two times and got to go in the cave. That is the second time I have been in a cave and I must say that caves a really, really sweet. (Profound, I know). We also did a short hike to a waterfall and if we had brought our bathing suits, we could have swam. We also met up with two of her friends who are teaching an intensive English course there. We went to a dive bar and danced merengue (I think I get that one more or less). I attempted to dance salsa and then showed them how we dance to techno... though I am not sure that I am the best example of we dance in the US. ;)

The goal this weekend is Caracas. Reina's friend is getting married, so we were thinking of going. If not, we will head back to Caripe.

Life might finally be getting started for me! But we shall see...

The adventure continues...

So my life in Maturin is going. It is slow... very, very slow and may continue to be slow for awhile.
Classes were suspended for an extra month so I will not begin teaching until November 16th (Happy Birthday, Kevin!!!). This means I have 1.5 months with no sort of direct work. WOW. I have been here 2 weeks and already feel like a bum, partially because I have not been able to open a bank account and have no money to do something like join a gym or enroll in a class. This means my activities are super limited and I am not around students and profes so it is slightly more difficult to make friends. This also means I am going to have to push myself to do things on my own. Crap... that is not always my strength (Thank you, Vanderbilt for babying me for the entirety of my college education.)


That being said, I am SO HAPPY to be here and feel this city is perfect for me. Big enough with enough to do but not too crazy.


Some parts of my Maturin life:


The interstate of doom:
Everyday I get to cross the street to my house anywhere from one to four times.This street is very special because it is more or less an interstate. People go quickly and there are no stop lights, so the traffic is pretty steady and fast. When I take the bus or get dropped off I generally get lucky and cross the street at times when other people cross with me. (This also means that it is generally during rush hour.) I feel we have an instant connection as anywhere from 2 to 10 of us huddle together and try to make it safely across. Sometimes we get honked at and sometimes we almost get hit, but so far, we have all made it across alive. ;) It is quite the experience.


FOOD:
My time here has revolved around food. Anytime I have gone out with people it has generally involved eating one time or many times and Señora Carmen is an amazing, amazing cook. Some things I have tried that are particularly delicious:
Arepas-- I eat these twice a day, at least. They are delicious corn cakes that you stuff with cheese, butter, beans, ham  and anything or everything else you want. (My current arepa count is 30 in total.)
Cachapa--Deliocious sweet corn pancake. I usually eat it with ham and cheese.
FRUIT JUICE: There are currrently two types of fresh squeezed fruit juice in the fridge. Piña (Pineapple) and Parchita (Passion Fruit). I have also had Melón (Canteloupe), Lechoza (Papaya), Mango and Guayaba (Guava) on a pretty consistent basis. I am a huge fan of juice, so you can imagine how I feel about this.
Tequeños-- Small fried cheese things. Like Mozzeralla sticks but different and equally delicious.
Frapachino: Ok, this is not venezuelan but I had the best one I have ever had here, so I just wanted to throw that out there.
Tizana- A delicious frozen fruit juice thing that tastes especially good when you are hot.






PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION:
As people may or may not already know, I am very passionate about public transportation. I love it and aspire to master it in any place I go. I have begun using public transport on a very regular basis and it is great here. The buses are the size of a short school bus, come in various colrs and levels of wear and have a colector who hangs out the side of the bus and takes your dinero. Some are really agressive, shouting the places the bus is going and beckoning you to get on while others are more quiet. I usually pick the first type to ensure that I do not get lost. The buses are 30 cents, so quite a bargain. They blast great music and tend to just miss get into several accidents in the course of one ride. To stop, you either have to hope your colector asks if anyone wants to stop (I did not understand the questions at first, so I missed my stop... oops....) or yell out  LA PARADA. I have only yelled it once and it made me nervous. They will pretty much stop anywhere and drop you off anywhere. There are also TONS of people who get on the bus to sell things. One day I counted 8 on the same bus within about 10 minutes of eachother, probably not the most effective way to get money. They juice sellers and the christians are the most prominent, though there are all people of all sorts. I have only mastered a few routes, but I am excited about learning more:)


I am pumped for the adventure to continue! I travel to Margarita next week for a week, get to go to an electronic music festival and then am going to see Maribel, another ETA in Cumaná the following weekend. 


I will keep the updates coming on my vida venezolana....

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:)