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.
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| Guacamayas at school one morning :) |
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