The Bright Side of Life

I am so, so, so happy with my decision to meet my Aunt Cindi and Uncle Bill in Aruba for a long weekend. I wasn’t sure if I should get a plane ticket to visit just for three days, but it was definitely worth it. It came at the perfect time too. Last week was very stressful and a weekend at the beach was just what I needed. I left for the airport at 3:30 AM on Saturday for my 7 AM flight from Caracas to Orjenstad. I had arranged for one of the school drivers to take me since it was so early, and I knew he would be reliable. It turned out to be a smart choice as well. First we passed two accidents on the opposite side of the freeway blocking traffic. As were we discussing how thankfully they were on the other side of the road, we spotted an accident in front of us. Luckily, he was able to exit the freeway in time and take a side road and reenter the freeway later. Again being thankful for the crisis averted, we continued on our way. After making it through one of the three tunnels to get to the airport, we hit some traffic again. But this time it wasn’t an accident, it was a road block by the military. That portion of the freeway had been shut down for the night. I couldn’t understand the Spanish well enough to know why, but I understood that it was closed until morning and we would have to wait. This had never been a problem on my early flights before so I figured maybe it was for safety reasons or something. I was starting to get nervous. I was so looking forward to the weekend and it had been such a rough week, that if I were to miss my flight, I would have been depressed. Luckily, I was with the school driver who was determined to get me to the airport and he knew the “old” way to get there. Before the tunnels were constructed, there was a long, extremely windy road over the mountains to get to the airport and so that is the route we took. It was the first time I have really been inside a barrio. Not exactly the place you want to be in the middle of the night, but it was interesting all the same. After forty-five minutes of speeding around the narrow curves up the mountain, I was grateful when the sharp turns started to descend. Soon enough we were back at the freeway and at the airport in enough time. The rest of the travel went smoothly and shortly after, I was being picked up in Aruba by my family.

They took me to their resort and showed me around. The Playa Linda Beach Resort was great. It isn’t how I would personally choose to vacation at this time in life, but I can certainly see the appeal. Everything is so convenient; anything you would want/need on a relaxing beach vacation is right there at, or next to, the resort.

Mini Vacation!

We got some bagels and coffee and then went to the beach right outside the resort. It wasn’t a very wide beach, but it had beautiful white sand, baby blue water, and little chickee huts to provide some shade. Because most of the visitors at the resort are time-share owners, many of the people on the beach were friends with my aunt and uncle just from vacationing together over the years. Everyone was very friendly and they watch after each other’s stuff. I learned there are some unwritten rules on their beach. For example:

1. When you go out early to the beach, to claim your chickee hut or otherwise, it is not appropriate to start talking until about 5 AM.
2. Once you have claimed a chickee hut at the beginning of your stay, it is rightfully yours and people shouldn’t try to change the seating arrangement. (*Notice: If you are staying more than one week, the huts are free game again starting on Monday when the new visitors arrive, so plan accordingly.)
3. It is your duty as a Playa Linda guest to watch over other Playa Linda guest’s belongings they may leave in their hut during the day. You never know what those “Boat people” might take. (*Boat people are the cruise passengers that flood the beach for a couple of hours when the ship is at port. It seems they are generally unwelcome, but it has been proven that they are harmless.)

OHHHH YEAHHHH

So Saturday I enjoyed just laying on the beach, reading my book, sipping some adult beverages, people watching, and overall just resting and relaxing. Lunch was bought for me by one of the neighboring hut habitors. He heard I like to eat healthy and bought me a delicious açai fruit cup. MMMMM. He later also gave me two bags of coffee to take with me since he heard about the shortages in Venezuela. That night, we went to dinner with the neighboring hut at Azzurro, the Italian restaurant in between the pool and the beach at the resort. We were hoping to see a good sunset, but it was too cloudy. At least the food was delicious! 

Parmesan Spaghetti: They put the spaghetti in the
cheese wheel and light it on fire to melt the
cheese on the pasta right before it is served!

After dinner, we strolled over to the Holiday Inn Casino and I gambled for the first time in my life. After losing ten dollars in the quarter slot machines, I still don't see the appeal in gambling. It was kind of funny, we were drinking coffee instead of the free drinks since we were tired from being in the sun all day. Hard life.

Woo I won $2.50!

The next day was much of the same. Tanning and swimming and napping. I did get up and used the gym facility. It was so motivational to have actual gym equipment. I miss my old gym; it is so much harder to be motivated without it. Again, we didn’t have to leave the resort area all day. I had lunch out front at a fresh express and we had dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse across the street. Afterwards, we did some window shopping; there is an endless amount of jewelers there. Again, by ten o’clock I was exhausted.

Monday, we switched it up a bit. First we went to the pharmacy and grocery store so I could get some goodies to take back with me. I was even able to get a Venezuelan prescription filled for Walli without any issues. The only problem I almost had was paying with my credit card. The only forms of ID I brought with me were my passport (which I left at the hotel) and a copy of my Venezuelan ID. I am so used to being able to use the laminated copy of my ID, everywhere in Venezuela accepts it, which is sort of strange I suppose. For some reason, I didn't bring my Florida ID like I usually do if I'm going to be using my American credit card. They ended up letting me make my purchase with a warning that next time I need to bring a real identification.

Then we headed to the west side of the island to Malmok beach to go snorkeling. Those of you who know me, know that I am afraid of what's in the water. So it took me a while to gather the bravery to get in, but once I was in the water it was alright. There were so many fish; I kept squirming around when they got too close. There wasn't anything too colorful or exciting but I'm just thankful I didn't see any jellies or sharks!

A more natural Aruba

Then we went to see the California lighthouse, which was so crowded with buses of "boat people." The lighthouse isn't functioning anymore and you can't go inside it so I don't know what makes it a place of interest. I guess just because it's a light house and you can see a lot of the island from it. I got a freshly made cocada drink that was a perfect refreshment.

On the way back east we stopped at Arashi beach, which was my kind of beach. It was a long and sandy with clear water and small waves. And it had a great breeze so you didn't sweat while sitting in the sun. Our stomachs called us back to the resort for lunch and we made it back in time for one more happy hour before I had to get ready to leave.

Thank you Aunt Cindi and Uncle Bill for inviting me and taking such good care of me!!!!!

Everything went smoothly on my flight back to Caracas. I got in on time, but I got held up in customs for a while because I did not have my original Venezuelan ID. They've never asked for it before, usually my passport is all they need. I guess because of the changes to American requirements to enter the country they are being more strict now. I was starting to get really nervous, but luckily they let me through with a warning that next time I travel I need to bring my original.

Seems to Me

Finally I was able to do some normal grocery shopping, well normal for here anyway. But there was a problem…The dwindling wine section did not have any prices AND there was a sign limiting each person to a maximum of five bottles. And yes, I was that person who kept picking bottles and taking them to the price check machine until I found an affordable bottle. If there is a shortage of wine, I am leaving.

I also went on a mission to purchase new dishes with Walli. I am to buy them and the school will refund me since most of mine were broken when the cabinet collapsed. We decided to go to one of the biggest malls in South America, Sambil, thinking it would have to have everything. Incorrect. We were in a shoe store and asked the cashier where there was a home goods store where we could buy plates and she said there wasn't one, and she was right. There must have been at least 50 shoe stores though, and we went into all of them. I didn't get my dishes but I got two cute new pairs of shoes :)

While we were shopping with thousands of other people, you never would have known that in another part of the city there was a pro-goverment march taking place. We made sure that we weren't anywhere close to it, but I did look up the news when I got home to see if anything of importance happened. And something did. The president was making a speech and declared that from now on Americans must apply for a visa to visit Venezuela and that the US Embassy must reduce its staff here by 80%. He blames the United States for most of the problems here because the US is employing "economic warfare." So this is his retaliation. While reading the news, I also became aware that earlier in the week, four American missionaries had been detained for a few days in Venezuela for suspected "espionage" motives. Shortly thereafter I got an email from the US Embassy stating that if we are detained or arrested in Venezuela we do have the right to have communication with the US Embassy, but often that right is denied/delayed and so that someone else should inform the Embassy as soon as possible…Yikes.

Anyway, things go on as usual. And as such, I was going about my week as usual. Except one day I decided to take the school bus home instead of walk. In doing so, I overheard some other teachers talking about an incident that had happened the day before. One teacher was telling the other she was a hero, so I nosily asked what they were talking about. Apparently the day before when the school buses went home, one of them did not make it because there were protesters in the streets and the traffic was stopped. Well then I guess some of the protestors started writing things on the bus with shoe polish. So the teacher who was on the bus took all the kids to her house nearby until the crowds went away.
1) It doesn't make sense that the protestors would vandalize a bus to spread their message, but ok people do stupid things when they're angry and fed up.
2) No one at the school said anything about this, I would not have known were I not on the bus that day. The school likes to keep these things quiet for obvious reasons, but I would like to know these types of things!

Still life goes on. It seems to me that tensions in the country are rising. And it seems to me that everyone here is just waiting for something to happen. The inflation and the shortages can't keep getting worse. And yet, no one seems to really be concerned about what might happen. But that's just what it seems to me.

The black market rate for 1USD is about 240VEF right now, four times what it was when I arrived. With the increase in inflation, prices are continually rising to make up for the loss. However, most people's salaries are constant. This has made a friend decide we should pay our maid more. Currently she makes 500VEF a day. To put that in perspective: a cartoon of eggs cost about 60, a loaf of bread 120, a bag of beans 40, a liter of milk 120, a bottle of wine 1,100. You can do the math, it must be very difficult to support a family with a constant salary. I just found out that she lives in Petare, the biggest barrio in Venezuela and one of the largest barrios in the world and commutes to my building for work everyday. The problem is she works for 3 Americans, 1 Brit and 2 Venezuelans so if the expats increase her wages, she would expect that from the locals who are in the same situation as her and cannot afford to pay more. We would not want to put them in that situation where she could potentially stop working for them, so we decided her salary will remain the same, but at the end of each month we can give her bonuses as we see fit/ can afford.

There was NO COFFEE at work on Wednesday. And we weren't even given a warning! I think it was just some cruel punishment for something because it happened to be the same day as parent conferences. I had two sets of parents not happy with me, but no need to go into detail about that.

The next day I had really bad sinus pressure that caused such a bad headache that I left school early after I taught my classes. It didn't get better after I got home and rested so I scheduled a doctors appointment. The soonest I could get in was the next morning at 8AM. When I woke up the following day, I was feeling much better; but because this has been a constant problem, I decided to go to the doctor anyway. I took a taxi and arrived at 7:45AM. The way it works here, is you sign up for an appointment time slot (my slot was from 8-12) then when you arrive at the office between those times you get put on a waiting list: first come, first served. When I signed in the lady told me I was second on the list so I was feeling even better…Two hours later and I was still sitting in the waiting room. I asked the receptionist when I was going to see the doctor and she said he had not arrived yet, he was in a different building! So I asked her how much longer I would have to wait and she said she did not know. No one at my school would answer their phones so I wasn't sure if I should wait or just give up. I decided to wait and another hour passed before I was seen. Luckily the doctor was nice and spoke English very well. He was actually a ear-throat-nose specialist but he wasn't clear why this would be a reoccurring problem if I've never had ear or throat issues before. He gave me antibiotics to decrease the swelling and get rid of any infection then in two weeks I will go back to get a scan of my face to see if there are any structural problems inside. Dun dun dunnnn.

Again, things go on so we had another birthday to celebrate and my friend Carlos had a BBQ at his house. I was disappointed that he didn't take the first bite out of the cake like that last party I was at. But he grilled a bunch of meat and veggies and it was a relaxing evening chilling with friends.

The next day I was supposed to go to a Davis Cup match between Venezuela and Costa Rica. Now I did not know what the Davis Cup was when I was invited and when I found out that it was for professional tennis, I polietly declined. Then I changed my mind, although I don't have a particular interest for watching sports (other than Ohio State Football) I figured it would be an "experience." However, the next day there was also an oppositional march taking place in the city. As I was getting ready for match, I looked up where it was located and also where the march was happening. They were only a few blocks away. I decided that was too close for my comfort and I told my friends to go without me and not to join any protest while they were in the area. I was really disappointed, not really so that I was missing the match, but just because I didn't feel comfortable enough to go. It's not something I want to have to worry about. They must have picked up on my hints that I didn't feel safe going so they asked me exactly where the march was happening. As I forwarded them the email with the street names, I realized the march was actually happening the next day. I was all worked up for nothing, but by that point it was too late for me to go with them. Funny enough, once they got there at 10AM they found out the match actually wasn't until 4 PM so no one ended up going in the end.

Guacamayas at school one morning :)

Short Month, Long Stories

The weekend after Lane visited, I got invited to a girls night out to celebrate one of the new teachers' birthday.  I didn't know exactly what I was getting myself into. We started out with happy hour followed by dinner at Antigua, the place we've been trying to go to for a while. I ordered a pizza "sin queso" and had to ensure the waiter that is what I actually wanted and he wasn't misunderstanding my poor spanish.

Gorgeous Gringas

After dinner, we went to Positano Urban Bar for a theatrical performance, Solo Para Ellas (Only for Girls). It turned out to be a version of Magic Mike in real life! There actually was a play with a story line and everything but I couldn't understand anything. But I did enjoy the breaks in the play where they did the dancing! We obviously wanted to get a seat in the front so we could push our birthday girl onto the stage, but when we got there before dinner it was too early to get a line number and when we arrived after dinner it was too late to get a good seat. But I think she still enjoyed herself and everyone had a good time. It was funny to see one of the Venezuelans with us trying to quiet down the gringas. I think it was the first time I've ever seen a Venezuelan embarrassed, especially about being too loud.

Trying to sneak in early before dinner

Pre Show

Post Show

The following Sunday, I woke up to loud crashing noises and I thought we were being bombed. It was a horrible way to wake up. After the longest minute of my life, the noise stopped and I realized we weren't being bombed and I rallied the courage to get out of bed to investigate. My kitchen cabinets had completed fallen off the wall and most of my dishes that were inside had broken. It was a bit stressful, but at least I had not been in the kitchen or I could have been seriously hurt.

Thankfully one wine glass and coffee mug survived!

I did not know that my apartment had been treated for termites before, but the wood that had been holding the cabinets in place was like a cracker. I do not know how it had stayed up for so long.

Cracker wood

Luckily I called a couple of friends over and they were able to help me move the cabinet into the hallway (where it still sits) so I could clean up the mess. Two weeks have passed and no progress has been make to fix the issue. At first the owner of my apartment was telling the school that he needed them to pay him rent in advance so he would have the money to fix it. Now I am told that next week a fumigation company will come inspect, then the new cabinets will be built (in approximately two weeks), and then the apartment will be fumigated and everything should be back to normal. We'll see how long it actually takes. Until then, it's really not enjoyable to cook in the kitchen because there are new termite trails being formed.

Yuck!

After cleaning all the mess and bleaching the kitchen I just left the salvaged items on the floor because I didn't know where I could put them. Shout out to Martha (my maid) who cleaned everything and found a way to organize my bottom cabinets so everything is put away now.

Just trying to think about the bright side

The week carried on like normal…Busy with school work... Finally made it to the bank so I could get a pin number to activate online banking…On Wednesday I went to the grocery store only to immediately return home because the line was around the side of the building (There was toilet paper)... On Thursday I went to the grocery store only to immediately return home because the line was around the side of the building (There was milk)…Much of the usual shenanigans.

So after unsuccessfully grocery shopping on Thursday I was preparing my lesson plans for Friday. It sounded like people were setting off fireworks outside, which is pretty normal here at any time of any day so I didn't think much about it. However, it went on for quite a while and I started smelling the smoke inside my apartment. So I went to the window to see what was going on and I saw kids running around the grassy area outside my apartment building and just figured they were the ones doing it. Darn kids. But then I saw my neighbor in her window on the phone calling the (I assume) police. Yet her face was not an annoyed with kids setting off fireworks, but a frantic there is an emergency face. So I looked further out the window and realized that the smoke was coming from my apartment building! And there was a lot! I immediately grabbed my phone and my keys and ran out to the pool area. I started calling all of the expats in my complex so they could get out.

It was very scary how fast the flames were spreading. Eventually everyone from the complex was standing outside watching. It took the fire department a while to arrive due to Caracas traffic.  
Then once they got here, it took them at least half an hour to get into the apartment. Because our building is so secure and the owners of the apartment weren't home, they had to take jaws of life to open the steel double doors. Then it took them another fifteen minutes to get water to the apartment because no one knew where the water hook up was located.

They didn't have any masks, just wet rags over their faces

By the time the fire was extinguished, the whole apartment had been burnt to a crisp. It was so sad and so scary. There was not a single alarm. Then the apartment owners showed up and it was like a movie seeing them run towards the apartment and the fire fighters holding them back and them crippling to the ground crying. It was awful. To be honest, I was very shook up from the event. Luckily our building is made out of concrete so the fire did not spread to other apartments, though the surrounding apartments were damaged some. And luckily no one was hurt, but some pets were lost :(



Sadly, while the fire was going people were talking bad about the owner of the apartment. They were not being very sympathetic. I was supposed to have my spanish lesson so my tutor was stuck with us and she was explaining this to me. All I could think about was how the family was losing everything.

The next day, there was a complex meeting to make a plan of action for future emergencies. I did not attend because it would have been useless with my limited spanish, but I did get the meeting notes that were emailed out afterwards. The horrible thing is the people were not focusing on the important things like cause of the fire, fire alarms, or emergency response time; but they were placing blame on the family who lost everything. The fire fighters had said they found remains of 13 pets. The owner is a veterinarian. But according to the meeting minutes, there is "speculation" that there were 74 dogs (with muzzles on) in the apartment and 81 animals in total and that the family has been staying in the burnt apartment and supposedly carrying out remains overnight. So the email focused on shaming and suing the family for animal cruelty. It has been a lot of drama and I just feel sorry for the family.

The event started some conversations at school with some of the locals. Apparently homeowners insurance is not that common in Venezuela. It exists but not many people have it even though it's relatively cheap. Yet everyone has car insurance even though it's expensive. I suppose cars are more in demand and have a higher risk of breaking compared to homes. House fires aren't very common here. I was expressing my concern about how the fire started and they said we probably won't ever know because often here the fire fighters will be paid off to report the cause was unknown so that owners don't have to take responsibility or to cover up corruption. So my spanish tutor has been in contact with the family because she is very caring and has been helping them out. They told her that all of the veterinarian tool boxes were safe from the fire but there was nothing left inside of them, they think the fire fighters must have robbed them. It's all just a mess.

So my friend Tracey has been planning this joint birthday party for her boyfriend and a friend that was supposed to take place the day after the fire. It's not a secret that some people in our building do not like us expats (because we are "just" teachers, we aren't rich enough for them) and so convieninetly a new rule was created that every time a party is held in a common space the whole complex will be notified, not only by email, but also by posted notices in the elevators… So even though everyone knew we were having a party, the location was changed to the school so that they couldn't say we were being disrespectful of the events that had occurred. So to end this post on a happier note, the party was fun even though it was held at my place of employment. There is this Venezuelan tradition where the birthday person is to take the first bite out of the cake without using hands and of course someone else will try to push their whole face into it. Ivon, Tracey's boyfriend successfully got a first bite, but Catherine, was not so lucky and ended up with hair full of icing.