I am nearing the end of my first year of teaching! I loved it and love living in Venezuela. However, I just find I don't have the time to blog!! (As you can tell by the months of lapses in my posts, haha). I think it's a good thing... it means I am out and enjoying as much as I can here.
After several trips since my last post (Aruba, Sinamaica, another trip to Punto Fijo, and Morrocoy National Park) I am preparing for one last hurrah before my biggest trip yet-- Europe this summer! I am leaving mid-June for a six week backpacking trip through mostly Eastern Europe, with a few detours to visit friends in the UK, Belgium, and Italy as well.
We are in the last month of school now and I can't believe how quickly the year has passed. My students have taught me a lot and hopefully I have taught them a lot too! :) I will miss them next year but they will just be next door, haha. I am looking forward to a new year also!!
Anyway, I am alive and well ... just inactive with this whole blogging business. Hasta luego blog!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Too busy to blog!
Hey everyone,
I have seriously been slacking on this blog, but I think in the end that's a good thing because it means I am keeping busy! Here's a quick run down of what I have been doing for the past few months....
December: I traveled to Punto Fijo, Venezuela to go to the beaches and visit the sand dunes. I felt like I was in another world in the dunes! It was incredible and I definitely want to return so I can try sandboarding! We saw some people doing that, and others on 4 wheelers. It was close to sunset and we had a long drive home but I hope to go back sometime soon. The week before Christmas I went to Milwaukee to visit Rachel and home to see the family (and I won't lie... to do some serious shopping at Target!!) After Christmas I went to Houston, TX for my college roommate's wedding. It was amazingly beautiful and great to see some friends, but it all happened so fast! It seems like a blur.
First week of January: Best vacation eveeeer. First I went to the Orinoco Delta with a friend from my school. It was a long day of travel (after a delayed flight, then a missed flight due to the cancellation, another delay, and finally a transfer to a different airline... then a 3.5 hour car ride to the river..... we made it!). We arrived at dusk so we couldn't really see anything. We packed our bags in to a boat and climbed in not knowing exactly where we were going, and soon we were zooming down the river in a boat under the most beautiful starlit sky I have seen in a long time. We came to a camp on the river where other tourists were eating dinner. There were a mix of German, Brazilian, Russian, and other tourists. Danielle and I got our own little hut and went to bed right after dinner because we were so exhausted! In the morning we awoke to the sound of howler monkeys... that is NOT what I thought a monkey would sound like (but now I know how they got their name!). We put on rubber boots and went through a walk in the rainforest led by a native Warao tribesman who showed us some fruits and how they use the plants to make many things. We also went to visit a Warao house built on stilts over the water! It was incredible to see how they make their homes and to observe their day to day life. We also went on a tour down the river and we saw dozens of parrots, many toucans, a couple of monkeys, and some river dolphins. It was my goal to see a monkey in the wild... so now I need to think of a new goal! :) The next day we went bird watching and saw the sunrise on the river, and also went fishing for piranhas. I did not fish but people in my group caught a few and it was interesting to see how sharp and powerful their teeth really are!
After three days in the river delta we traveled back to the city to meet with another friend from school to begin our tour to the world's largest waterfall: Angel Falls. After a night spent in a very creepy posada (a mix between a hostel and bed and breakfast) that doubled as some kind of strange petting zoo, we flew to Canaima and met our tour guide and group that we would travel with for the next three days. We loaded our things in to a boat once again and traveled upstream for 4 hours to reach the base of the falls. On the way we stopped at a smaller waterfall to swim and another place where we hiked for a little while. Both places were incredibly beautiful... and it made me even more excited to see Angel Falls! The tepuis (the tall plateus that are characteristic of this region in Venezuela) got larger as we neared, and then it appeared as we rounded a bend in the river. Everyone in the boat ooed and awed... and then it was silent for a minute. It is really that spectacular! No words can adequately describe it. We stayed at a base camp that night, sleeping under a pavilion with 40 hammocks in it. Try to get a peaceful night of sleep with 40 people... and sleeping in a hammock... pretty much impossible, haha! Though we didn't sleep well we were very excited to hike up to falls. Our group hiked uphill for about one hour in the humid rainforest before reaching a lookout point. Then I realized we were really close to the falls... but also very far because it is so tall!! The clouds obscured the top by that point but the water was rushing past us. We hiked a little further to a pool where the falls dropped in to and we swam there. It was freezing at first and we almost did not go in, but when were we going to get another opportunity to do this?? In the end the water was very refreshing and we had a lot of fun swimming! We returned to the base camp and packed our things to go back to Canaima. We stayed in a less-sketchy posada there and had a party with all of our new friends from the tour. We really were a great group... a mix of couples, singles, and families from the US, Canada, Germany, France, Venezuela, and Colombia. We had a lot of fun and our tour guide was really great! In the morning he took us to the Canaima Lagoon, which is fed by 7 huge waterfalls (not in height, but in volume of water). We hiked for about an hour to the various falls, walking behind some and swimming near others. It was a beautifully perfect day and we were lucky to have great weather. At the end of the day we went back to the posada and had a group dinner. By this time it seemed like we were old friends with everyone in our tour group. It was almost like the feeling you get at summer camp: you are super bonded for a few days and promise to stay in touch and plan to meet again... and then a month later you realize you have not made any contact with them, haha. Our flight was the next morning in a tiny 6 seat plane. After some layovers, a plane malfunction and return to the airport, 5 hour delay, and re-take off.... we made it back to Maracaibo for school the next day.
In the month since then I have not been out of the city but I have been really busy at school! We have been teaching on every other Saturday to make up for the lost days in December. Thankfully I have been able to convince my second graders that they are lucky to go to school on Saturday because hardly any other school in the world would "allow" them to do that! It's all about what you get to do, not what you have to do! ;) I have taken this opportunity to do some things with the students that normally I would not have time for, such as a vegetable party to celebrate the end of our plant unit in science, a spelling bee, making origami, and soon we will be making costumes for International Day.
While all of this has kept me rather busy, I am looking forward to my upcoming travels (as always!). I am going to Caracas this weekend to get my Venezuelan ID and to celebrate my birthday at the beach! In three weeks I am going to Mochima National Park to relax on the beautiful islands, and then off to Aruba for spring break with my sister in April. Many Venezuelans that I talk to, ranging from my students' parents to people I meet through mutual friends, comment that I have seen more of Venezuela than they have! I really want to see as much as possible and I'm not letting any opportunity for travel slip away from me. I will very easily have a new place to go on every long break or 4 day weekend for the next year... but there is always Colombia or Panama and everything there is to do there!
I have seriously been slacking on this blog, but I think in the end that's a good thing because it means I am keeping busy! Here's a quick run down of what I have been doing for the past few months....
December: I traveled to Punto Fijo, Venezuela to go to the beaches and visit the sand dunes. I felt like I was in another world in the dunes! It was incredible and I definitely want to return so I can try sandboarding! We saw some people doing that, and others on 4 wheelers. It was close to sunset and we had a long drive home but I hope to go back sometime soon. The week before Christmas I went to Milwaukee to visit Rachel and home to see the family (and I won't lie... to do some serious shopping at Target!!) After Christmas I went to Houston, TX for my college roommate's wedding. It was amazingly beautiful and great to see some friends, but it all happened so fast! It seems like a blur.
First week of January: Best vacation eveeeer. First I went to the Orinoco Delta with a friend from my school. It was a long day of travel (after a delayed flight, then a missed flight due to the cancellation, another delay, and finally a transfer to a different airline... then a 3.5 hour car ride to the river..... we made it!). We arrived at dusk so we couldn't really see anything. We packed our bags in to a boat and climbed in not knowing exactly where we were going, and soon we were zooming down the river in a boat under the most beautiful starlit sky I have seen in a long time. We came to a camp on the river where other tourists were eating dinner. There were a mix of German, Brazilian, Russian, and other tourists. Danielle and I got our own little hut and went to bed right after dinner because we were so exhausted! In the morning we awoke to the sound of howler monkeys... that is NOT what I thought a monkey would sound like (but now I know how they got their name!). We put on rubber boots and went through a walk in the rainforest led by a native Warao tribesman who showed us some fruits and how they use the plants to make many things. We also went to visit a Warao house built on stilts over the water! It was incredible to see how they make their homes and to observe their day to day life. We also went on a tour down the river and we saw dozens of parrots, many toucans, a couple of monkeys, and some river dolphins. It was my goal to see a monkey in the wild... so now I need to think of a new goal! :) The next day we went bird watching and saw the sunrise on the river, and also went fishing for piranhas. I did not fish but people in my group caught a few and it was interesting to see how sharp and powerful their teeth really are!
After three days in the river delta we traveled back to the city to meet with another friend from school to begin our tour to the world's largest waterfall: Angel Falls. After a night spent in a very creepy posada (a mix between a hostel and bed and breakfast) that doubled as some kind of strange petting zoo, we flew to Canaima and met our tour guide and group that we would travel with for the next three days. We loaded our things in to a boat once again and traveled upstream for 4 hours to reach the base of the falls. On the way we stopped at a smaller waterfall to swim and another place where we hiked for a little while. Both places were incredibly beautiful... and it made me even more excited to see Angel Falls! The tepuis (the tall plateus that are characteristic of this region in Venezuela) got larger as we neared, and then it appeared as we rounded a bend in the river. Everyone in the boat ooed and awed... and then it was silent for a minute. It is really that spectacular! No words can adequately describe it. We stayed at a base camp that night, sleeping under a pavilion with 40 hammocks in it. Try to get a peaceful night of sleep with 40 people... and sleeping in a hammock... pretty much impossible, haha! Though we didn't sleep well we were very excited to hike up to falls. Our group hiked uphill for about one hour in the humid rainforest before reaching a lookout point. Then I realized we were really close to the falls... but also very far because it is so tall!! The clouds obscured the top by that point but the water was rushing past us. We hiked a little further to a pool where the falls dropped in to and we swam there. It was freezing at first and we almost did not go in, but when were we going to get another opportunity to do this?? In the end the water was very refreshing and we had a lot of fun swimming! We returned to the base camp and packed our things to go back to Canaima. We stayed in a less-sketchy posada there and had a party with all of our new friends from the tour. We really were a great group... a mix of couples, singles, and families from the US, Canada, Germany, France, Venezuela, and Colombia. We had a lot of fun and our tour guide was really great! In the morning he took us to the Canaima Lagoon, which is fed by 7 huge waterfalls (not in height, but in volume of water). We hiked for about an hour to the various falls, walking behind some and swimming near others. It was a beautifully perfect day and we were lucky to have great weather. At the end of the day we went back to the posada and had a group dinner. By this time it seemed like we were old friends with everyone in our tour group. It was almost like the feeling you get at summer camp: you are super bonded for a few days and promise to stay in touch and plan to meet again... and then a month later you realize you have not made any contact with them, haha. Our flight was the next morning in a tiny 6 seat plane. After some layovers, a plane malfunction and return to the airport, 5 hour delay, and re-take off.... we made it back to Maracaibo for school the next day.
In the month since then I have not been out of the city but I have been really busy at school! We have been teaching on every other Saturday to make up for the lost days in December. Thankfully I have been able to convince my second graders that they are lucky to go to school on Saturday because hardly any other school in the world would "allow" them to do that! It's all about what you get to do, not what you have to do! ;) I have taken this opportunity to do some things with the students that normally I would not have time for, such as a vegetable party to celebrate the end of our plant unit in science, a spelling bee, making origami, and soon we will be making costumes for International Day.
While all of this has kept me rather busy, I am looking forward to my upcoming travels (as always!). I am going to Caracas this weekend to get my Venezuelan ID and to celebrate my birthday at the beach! In three weeks I am going to Mochima National Park to relax on the beautiful islands, and then off to Aruba for spring break with my sister in April. Many Venezuelans that I talk to, ranging from my students' parents to people I meet through mutual friends, comment that I have seen more of Venezuela than they have! I really want to see as much as possible and I'm not letting any opportunity for travel slip away from me. I will very easily have a new place to go on every long break or 4 day weekend for the next year... but there is always Colombia or Panama and everything there is to do there!
Monday, December 13, 2010
Homeward bound!
It's a great movie... but also what I will be doing next Monday! I am looking forward to seeing family and friends and celebrating the holidays, but also looking forward to actually DOING something. School has been canceled for the past two weeks due to the tropical storms and the flooding and landslides that followed. Luckily in Maracaibo we have been largely unaffected. Some people that live near the lake north of the city have lost their homes but in the city the only problem we have experienced is an ironic water shortage. For about five days we had water rationing, meaning that we only had water for three hours every day. It really makes you appreciate having water at your disposal!! It also makes me appreciate that my students and I have not been affected by the storms that much. The school is sponsoring a clothing and food drive to help those in need, and if there's anyone that can afford the time and money to help these people it's the families that attend my school! The response has been incredible and the whole auditorium is full of donations and people organizing everything that was brought in.
Meanwhile, I am just hanging around waiting to go home! I'm going to the beach for the weekend but until then all the teachers are joking that we are living the life of our students' moms: going to the pool, going to the gym, going out to eat, shopping, etc. After one week I am already a little bored... now I have another week! I am enjoying the time off but I also am worried because we will have to make up all of this time within the current school calendar. AKA: Saturday school. It's not official yet but that seems to be the option we are left with.
Meanwhile, I am just hanging around waiting to go home! I'm going to the beach for the weekend but until then all the teachers are joking that we are living the life of our students' moms: going to the pool, going to the gym, going out to eat, shopping, etc. After one week I am already a little bored... now I have another week! I am enjoying the time off but I also am worried because we will have to make up all of this time within the current school calendar. AKA: Saturday school. It's not official yet but that seems to be the option we are left with.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
I am getting progressively worse at updating
Sorry about that... I'm just too busy! I guess that's a good thing, right? I feel like I've hardly had time to get homesick because I'm always doing stuff and out with people.
Let's see... in the past month I have been traveling a bit more within the country (because my passport is still in Caracas to get my work visa sorted out). I went to Merida, a city in the Andes mountains, with about 10 other teachers from the school and some other friends. The weather is much cooler there (about 50-60 degrees... 70 on some days) and it was so wonderful to wear jeans and a sweatshirt! It finally felt like November to me. But who am I kidding... Wisconsin in November is rarely 50 degrees! I'm sure I will be shocked when I get off the plane in Milwaukee in December! In the mountains I did paragliding, where I was strapped to a trained person and jumped off a mountainside with a parachute! It was incredible. It wasn't even scary at all! You kind of just run off the mountain and then your feet aren't on the ground but you're at the same height, then you just float and twirl for about 20 minutes until you're on the ground at the bottom of the mountain. It was a really great experience and I would definitely do it again! We walked around the city and did some shopping at a market. We also went to a world famous ice cream store which is in the Guinness book of records for having the most flavors! They have nearly 800 types.... some of which are pretty weird! I had black bean and rice ice cream one day, and plantain and cheese another day. Here a plaintain cake with cheese melted on it is a popular street snack, and beans and rice are good too, so the combos made sense to me! :) They tasted pretty good too! I could taste the bean and rice and whatnot, but it was still sweet so it was yummy.
Last weekend I attempted to go to Morrocoy National Park with two other friends from school. It is supposed to have some of the best beaches in the country and very clear, blue water. The pictures of it look gorgeous so we were really excited!! When we got there it was pouring rain but we hoped for better weather in the morning. Unfortunately it didn't stop, and the power kept going on and off as a result of the storm! Soon there was a puddle in our room from all the water, and somehow amongst all of this water, our hotel's water pump broke and we didn't have any water for about 12 hours. We stayed for one more day hoping that the weather would clear up but it never did. The people at our hotel helped us to find a guy to drive us back to the city. We discovered that two bridges had washed out and the main highway was flooded so badly we could not pass, so we had to drive a completely different way through the mountains, which took about four hours more. We finally got back to the city safe and sound... and it was only Friday night so we still had a few days left to our vacation. We went to a health seminar at the park on Saturday morning and took a kickboxing and yoga class, and got a massage. We were going to go to the pool but then it started raining, AGAIN! Thankfully it was sunny today so I went to the pool and laid in the sun for a while... it was so nice and relaxing after a crazy weekend! I can't come back to the Midwest looking like I never left, you know. ;)
Well that about sums up the past few weeks. School goes on as normal and there are only three more weeks left in the semester! I know I have said it before but it just feels like time is not passing because the weather is pretty much the same every day. I am shocked that it will be December! The only thing that reminds me is the Christmas decorations. I have a tiny tree (I mean TINY, like the size of my hand) with teeny tiny ornaments, haha. It's all I could fit in my suitcase! ;) I also bought some white glittery thing to put around it to make it look like snow. I think my students went crazy for Halloween.... I can only imagine what will happen at Christmas!
Let's see... in the past month I have been traveling a bit more within the country (because my passport is still in Caracas to get my work visa sorted out). I went to Merida, a city in the Andes mountains, with about 10 other teachers from the school and some other friends. The weather is much cooler there (about 50-60 degrees... 70 on some days) and it was so wonderful to wear jeans and a sweatshirt! It finally felt like November to me. But who am I kidding... Wisconsin in November is rarely 50 degrees! I'm sure I will be shocked when I get off the plane in Milwaukee in December! In the mountains I did paragliding, where I was strapped to a trained person and jumped off a mountainside with a parachute! It was incredible. It wasn't even scary at all! You kind of just run off the mountain and then your feet aren't on the ground but you're at the same height, then you just float and twirl for about 20 minutes until you're on the ground at the bottom of the mountain. It was a really great experience and I would definitely do it again! We walked around the city and did some shopping at a market. We also went to a world famous ice cream store which is in the Guinness book of records for having the most flavors! They have nearly 800 types.... some of which are pretty weird! I had black bean and rice ice cream one day, and plantain and cheese another day. Here a plaintain cake with cheese melted on it is a popular street snack, and beans and rice are good too, so the combos made sense to me! :) They tasted pretty good too! I could taste the bean and rice and whatnot, but it was still sweet so it was yummy.
Last weekend I attempted to go to Morrocoy National Park with two other friends from school. It is supposed to have some of the best beaches in the country and very clear, blue water. The pictures of it look gorgeous so we were really excited!! When we got there it was pouring rain but we hoped for better weather in the morning. Unfortunately it didn't stop, and the power kept going on and off as a result of the storm! Soon there was a puddle in our room from all the water, and somehow amongst all of this water, our hotel's water pump broke and we didn't have any water for about 12 hours. We stayed for one more day hoping that the weather would clear up but it never did. The people at our hotel helped us to find a guy to drive us back to the city. We discovered that two bridges had washed out and the main highway was flooded so badly we could not pass, so we had to drive a completely different way through the mountains, which took about four hours more. We finally got back to the city safe and sound... and it was only Friday night so we still had a few days left to our vacation. We went to a health seminar at the park on Saturday morning and took a kickboxing and yoga class, and got a massage. We were going to go to the pool but then it started raining, AGAIN! Thankfully it was sunny today so I went to the pool and laid in the sun for a while... it was so nice and relaxing after a crazy weekend! I can't come back to the Midwest looking like I never left, you know. ;)
Well that about sums up the past few weeks. School goes on as normal and there are only three more weeks left in the semester! I know I have said it before but it just feels like time is not passing because the weather is pretty much the same every day. I am shocked that it will be December! The only thing that reminds me is the Christmas decorations. I have a tiny tree (I mean TINY, like the size of my hand) with teeny tiny ornaments, haha. It's all I could fit in my suitcase! ;) I also bought some white glittery thing to put around it to make it look like snow. I think my students went crazy for Halloween.... I can only imagine what will happen at Christmas!
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Busy weekend!
This weekend I went to my first concert and first baseball game in Venezuela. One of my local friends took me to a concert with his brothers and some of their friends on Friday night. There were three bands... one kind of punk band (that did a cover of Avril Lavigne's Skater Boy.... it was unexpected and funny but they did a pretty good job, only a few words were a little off) and another that was a rock band. The last band was the main act and they were good! They remind me of other bands that I listen to, like a combo of Maroon 5, Guster, and Muse if you can imagine that haha! It was really fun. After the concert we went to a bar and hung out there for a few hours. It was nice because I haven't found too many bars to just sit and have a drink- most places are clubs with dancing and stuff like that. I prefer just to sit and talk so it was nice to have a night like that!
On Saturday I went to a baseball game with some other teachers from the school. The Zulia Aguilas (Eagles) are the team from Maracaibo. Earlier in the day my friend Marcie and her husband met one of the players in a store when they heard him speaking English. They started talking and he told them to come by the dugout during the game to say hello. So we had to convince three security checkpoints that we had to go to the fence down by the field so we could talk with our American friend, haha. My horrible Spanish skills must have been convincing enough that they let us through! So we talked with him for a little bit during the game and then security guards started surrounding all of us. The player was waving them away and said it was fine but they made us leave anyway. So we didn't get to talk for long but it was still interesting to meet another American so far away. He said that every Venezuelan team is allowed to have 7 US players on their team, which is possible since the baseball season here is just starting. So maybe we will meet them again!
This coming week is going to be Halloween madness at school. My classroom is all decorated and my seven room moms (yes, 7... they all want to help!) are coming on Friday to help me with the class party. There is also a carnival at the school at night with trick or treating so it's going to be a long and sugary week!
On Saturday I went to a baseball game with some other teachers from the school. The Zulia Aguilas (Eagles) are the team from Maracaibo. Earlier in the day my friend Marcie and her husband met one of the players in a store when they heard him speaking English. They started talking and he told them to come by the dugout during the game to say hello. So we had to convince three security checkpoints that we had to go to the fence down by the field so we could talk with our American friend, haha. My horrible Spanish skills must have been convincing enough that they let us through! So we talked with him for a little bit during the game and then security guards started surrounding all of us. The player was waving them away and said it was fine but they made us leave anyway. So we didn't get to talk for long but it was still interesting to meet another American so far away. He said that every Venezuelan team is allowed to have 7 US players on their team, which is possible since the baseball season here is just starting. So maybe we will meet them again!
This coming week is going to be Halloween madness at school. My classroom is all decorated and my seven room moms (yes, 7... they all want to help!) are coming on Friday to help me with the class party. There is also a carnival at the school at night with trick or treating so it's going to be a long and sugary week!
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Dedicated to the people who asked if I was going to be living in a hut
Here are some pictures of my apa
rtment. Overall you can see I'm living well here! My school pays the rent on my apartment and it came completely furnished. The school rents apartments all over this neighborhood so only one other teaching couple from EBV lives in my building, but we definitely have the nicest apartments so it's worth it even though we live a little farther away from everyone else. I put more pictures on facebook because it uploads faster there for some reason, so look for more pictures there!
rtment. Overall you can see I'm living well here! My school pays the rent on my apartment and it came completely furnished. The school rents apartments all over this neighborhood so only one other teaching couple from EBV lives in my building, but we definitely have the nicest apartments so it's worth it even though we live a little farther away from everyone else. I put more pictures on facebook because it uploads faster there for some reason, so look for more pictures there!
My classroom is all decorated for Halloween now. Even though Halloween is not really celebrated here in Venezuela, my school celebrates all American holidays. I think the fact that it's a foreign holiday makes the kids even more excited about it, so the parents are really involved with Halloween stuff at school. Seven moms from my class came to decorate my room one day and they even brought candy so I could have a candy dish for the students this month. I decided to forgo that idea to avoid a two week headache of sugared up students, but their intentions were sweet. :)
The moms are also organizing a Halloween party. They are going to bring in McDonald's Happy Meals for lunch, plus cupcakes and a goodie bag with candy. They wanted to collect about $30 from each student to buy the food and pay for the Halloween decorations and stuff like that (since they were shipped from the US it was probably a little expensive). Still, I can NOT imagine a school in the States that would collect that much money to fund a Halloween party for one classroom! They also wanted to get about $15 from each student to pay for a birthday party and gift for my assistant. Very, very sweet... but still crazy! It's just another example of the population that I work with. They are generous with their time and money and on the whole they are really good people; not stuck up or anything like that.
Here are a few pictures of my classroom, pre-Halloween decorating. I will put some pictures of the Halloween party up after that happens.
Here are some before and after pictures of my classroom:
The moms are also organizing a Halloween party. They are going to bring in McDonald's Happy Meals for lunch, plus cupcakes and a goodie bag with candy. They wanted to collect about $30 from each student to buy the food and pay for the Halloween decorations and stuff like that (since they were shipped from the US it was probably a little expensive). Still, I can NOT imagine a school in the States that would collect that much money to fund a Halloween party for one classroom! They also wanted to get about $15 from each student to pay for a birthday party and gift for my assistant. Very, very sweet... but still crazy! It's just another example of the population that I work with. They are generous with their time and money and on the whole they are really good people; not stuck up or anything like that.
Here are a few pictures of my classroom, pre-Halloween decorating. I will put some pictures of the Halloween party up after that happens.
Here are some before and after pictures of my classroom:
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Election madness!
Elections for Venezuela's "house of representatives" were on Sunday. The results came out yesterday, and many of the locals I know here were very pleased with the results. The state I live in, called Zulia, is the "opposition" state in Venezuela (aka the vast majority of government positions are held by people not in Chavez's party). In the elections, 92% of Zulians voted against the Chavez party. Incredible! But, most of the rest of Venezuela remains "Chavista" and a lot of Chavistas were re-elected or put in office. Still, the Chavistas lost some positions so now in the parliament there are 1/3 opposition representatives and 2/3 Chavistas. This means that the Chavistas don't have enough control to be able to pass new legislation completely on their own--they need to cooperate with the opposition. Everyone that I spoke with at school was very happy that the opposition made progress and hopes that this trend will continue for the next election. I suspect there must be some Chavistas that work at my school but I'm sure they keep their mouths shut since there's a lot of Chavez-bashing that occurs.
Last night there was a big procession of cars and people walking to celebrate the elections. There was music blaring and horns honking (which isn't too out of the ordinary... but this time it was organized, haha).
Since the election process is not very secure or modernized, the city is basically shut down to vote. For instance, my school was canceled from Thursday-Monday. The superintendent decided to cancel school the week before because he suspected that the government would cancel schools around the state on short notice and he wanted to be prepared (apparently the government has done that before and it's been chaotic). So the students didn't have school but we had professional development days. On Sunday, many stores were closed and it was difficult to get around because some streets were blocked off to accommodate the crowds at the voting centers. There were huge lines of people, and vendors selling food and drinks while people waited 1-3 hours to vote. There is an interesting method to ensure that people only vote once. After you vote, you have to dip your pinky finger in to a jar of permanent purple ink. I mean, it's super permanent! Four days after the election everyone is still walking around with bright purple fingers haha! It's an interesting procedure and I suppose it's effective.
There seems to be a pretty good turnout for voting here. In the US voter registration is ridiculously low... and I can't imagine what would happen if people had to wait 1-3 hours in line to vote! People here really seem to value democracy, and especially now that the democracy they have come to know has changed so much in the past ten years they want to have their say. I hope their passion helps them achieve what they want to... but I can't help but wonder if I would feel differently if I lived in a Chavista state. I'm still on the fence about him and probably will stay that way for a while.
Last night there was a big procession of cars and people walking to celebrate the elections. There was music blaring and horns honking (which isn't too out of the ordinary... but this time it was organized, haha).
Since the election process is not very secure or modernized, the city is basically shut down to vote. For instance, my school was canceled from Thursday-Monday. The superintendent decided to cancel school the week before because he suspected that the government would cancel schools around the state on short notice and he wanted to be prepared (apparently the government has done that before and it's been chaotic). So the students didn't have school but we had professional development days. On Sunday, many stores were closed and it was difficult to get around because some streets were blocked off to accommodate the crowds at the voting centers. There were huge lines of people, and vendors selling food and drinks while people waited 1-3 hours to vote. There is an interesting method to ensure that people only vote once. After you vote, you have to dip your pinky finger in to a jar of permanent purple ink. I mean, it's super permanent! Four days after the election everyone is still walking around with bright purple fingers haha! It's an interesting procedure and I suppose it's effective.
There seems to be a pretty good turnout for voting here. In the US voter registration is ridiculously low... and I can't imagine what would happen if people had to wait 1-3 hours in line to vote! People here really seem to value democracy, and especially now that the democracy they have come to know has changed so much in the past ten years they want to have their say. I hope their passion helps them achieve what they want to... but I can't help but wonder if I would feel differently if I lived in a Chavista state. I'm still on the fence about him and probably will stay that way for a while.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)