I've been wanting to update my blog for a while, but I've really been struggling with what to write. The past few weeks haven't been going so great since Dereek and I have yet to find a job in a country where we can both go, he got denied his tourist visa to the states, and Venezuela as a whole is getting a little crazy and even if I wanted to stay next year, I don't think it would be a good idea without at least a working visa. Get ready for not the most happy of posts... but it will have my perspective of what's going on in the country and some cute kid pictures at the end. =)
First, Dereek and I are absolutely struggling to figure out what we're going to do come June. He got denied his travel visa, so there is no chance of him even visiting then states any time soon. Stupid immigration bitch didn't even bother to look at all his working, school, and bank papers. Yes, I'm bitter about this still and not pleased with the US immigration system one bit. I've watched rich families fly into Miami, hang out, have a baby there so he/she can get citizenship and come back no problem, but my boyfriend can't get approved to meet my family for a few days. America, sometimes you really shit on people who aren't wealthy or white. AND cue end rant. Though this is frustrating, the main problem is that we're struggling to find jobs together somewhere. I was offered a job in Valledupar Colombia, (he's Colombian and could go there easily) but the pay was awful, school had no supplies, and I'd be living for two years with no tv, internet or hot water; so I turned that down. I am still waiting to hear back from a few places, so we'll see how that goes. The biggest problem with changing countries is that it is really important that he can finish his electrical engineering degree. Unfortunately, trying to transfer his Venezuelan credits is not easy, and Venezuelan currency is more or less useless in the rest of the world, so he has really no funds to pay for anything outside of here or Colombia at the moment. Anyone have suggestions? We're open for them.
Now, the interesting Venezuela political/economic problems that are occurring. As everyone knows, living here for the past year and a half has it's ups and downs. The major down since I moved here has been that shortages of necessary items are really common. This has gotten particularly bad this school year. The "grocery store" is basically filled with corn flakes and Christmas cookies. I find things like chicken, butter, sugar, milk, flour and toilet paper being sold (both legally and illegally depending on the item) in the open air market Saturday or Sunday mornings downtown. An up for me, but down for the country as a whole, has been the declining value of the bolivar fuerte (which really isn't fuerte). When I got here in August 2012 the illegal value (what we exchange at and what really is the norm) was 1 dollar was 8.5 BsF. Now, in February 2014 we can exchange at 1 dollar to over 80 BsF. For me, this is awesome (yacht party anyone?) but for the country and locals this is causing a lot of problems. The government regulates how many dollars people can buy, so this causes the need for a black market for dollars. Venezuela imports just about everything and as import prices rise, people need dollars, and since the government regulates how many people can legally get, it causes the black market dollar to rise dramatically. I've read comments on articles saying that "well there is no product inflation without wage inflation." I promise you, there is here. Dereek makes about 6,000 BsF a month. This is with a company run by a foreigner working in a lab from about 7:30 until 5pm and on call two weekends a month. At the moment 6,000 BsF won't even buy you $100 on the black market. Now try and imagine how hard that makes it for someone to better their life by taking online courses through a foreign university, studying abroad, traveling abroad in any way, shape, or form. People are feeling trapped. The shortages, failing economy, and not to mention rampant violence (I saw a statistic today saying that in our 10 years of war in Vietnam 58,000 people were killed, and here in Venezuela in 13 years of "peace" 155,000 people have been killed by violent crimes) are getting more and more people frustrated with the current ruling power. The current president, Maduro, was "elected" last year when Chavez died. I tend to associate mostly with people who agree with the opposition, so my perspectives may be skewed, but most people I know believe that the results of the election were falsified or elections were rigged. The opposition wants Maduro out of power and last week, on Venezuela's Youth Day college students went out and protested the current government. What resulted was tear gas and hostile reactions to the protestors. This spurred more protests and since last week 5 people have been killed in them. Also in the past few days US officials have been kicked out of the embassy because the president believes that the US is behind much of the protests. One of the main opposition leaders, Lopez, has also recently been put in jail. Don't worry about me here, Anaco is safe and quiet, all of the action is in the west of the country. We have small protests here, but nothing dangerous. I, personally, also feel this is a necessary step for the country if anything is to ever get better. I can't predict what will happen in the next few days, weeks, months, but I hope it helps the country. This is a place that I will hopefully be coming back to after I leave in June and I'd like to see it in a position that reflects its natural beauty and the kindness of the average person that I have met here.
If you have made it this far in my less than happy post I do have to say that Dereek took Jay, Shannon and I to a music festival 2 weekends ago in Cantaura. There was tons of live salsa music, cattle herding, and bbq meat everywhere. It was pretty fun to be able to get out and do something the different. We came back fairly late after spending the night drinking, dancing to salsa, and eating buttloads of bbq meat. Just to clarify, this was the manliest meat I have ever seen. I'm thinking the process they went through to get this meat was kill animal, spear a tree through it, dig a large pit, set said pit aflame, stick meat skewered by a tree over it and let it roast. It was pretty delicious.
First, Dereek and I are absolutely struggling to figure out what we're going to do come June. He got denied his travel visa, so there is no chance of him even visiting then states any time soon. Stupid immigration bitch didn't even bother to look at all his working, school, and bank papers. Yes, I'm bitter about this still and not pleased with the US immigration system one bit. I've watched rich families fly into Miami, hang out, have a baby there so he/she can get citizenship and come back no problem, but my boyfriend can't get approved to meet my family for a few days. America, sometimes you really shit on people who aren't wealthy or white. AND cue end rant. Though this is frustrating, the main problem is that we're struggling to find jobs together somewhere. I was offered a job in Valledupar Colombia, (he's Colombian and could go there easily) but the pay was awful, school had no supplies, and I'd be living for two years with no tv, internet or hot water; so I turned that down. I am still waiting to hear back from a few places, so we'll see how that goes. The biggest problem with changing countries is that it is really important that he can finish his electrical engineering degree. Unfortunately, trying to transfer his Venezuelan credits is not easy, and Venezuelan currency is more or less useless in the rest of the world, so he has really no funds to pay for anything outside of here or Colombia at the moment. Anyone have suggestions? We're open for them.
Now, the interesting Venezuela political/economic problems that are occurring. As everyone knows, living here for the past year and a half has it's ups and downs. The major down since I moved here has been that shortages of necessary items are really common. This has gotten particularly bad this school year. The "grocery store" is basically filled with corn flakes and Christmas cookies. I find things like chicken, butter, sugar, milk, flour and toilet paper being sold (both legally and illegally depending on the item) in the open air market Saturday or Sunday mornings downtown. An up for me, but down for the country as a whole, has been the declining value of the bolivar fuerte (which really isn't fuerte). When I got here in August 2012 the illegal value (what we exchange at and what really is the norm) was 1 dollar was 8.5 BsF. Now, in February 2014 we can exchange at 1 dollar to over 80 BsF. For me, this is awesome (yacht party anyone?) but for the country and locals this is causing a lot of problems. The government regulates how many dollars people can buy, so this causes the need for a black market for dollars. Venezuela imports just about everything and as import prices rise, people need dollars, and since the government regulates how many people can legally get, it causes the black market dollar to rise dramatically. I've read comments on articles saying that "well there is no product inflation without wage inflation." I promise you, there is here. Dereek makes about 6,000 BsF a month. This is with a company run by a foreigner working in a lab from about 7:30 until 5pm and on call two weekends a month. At the moment 6,000 BsF won't even buy you $100 on the black market. Now try and imagine how hard that makes it for someone to better their life by taking online courses through a foreign university, studying abroad, traveling abroad in any way, shape, or form. People are feeling trapped. The shortages, failing economy, and not to mention rampant violence (I saw a statistic today saying that in our 10 years of war in Vietnam 58,000 people were killed, and here in Venezuela in 13 years of "peace" 155,000 people have been killed by violent crimes) are getting more and more people frustrated with the current ruling power. The current president, Maduro, was "elected" last year when Chavez died. I tend to associate mostly with people who agree with the opposition, so my perspectives may be skewed, but most people I know believe that the results of the election were falsified or elections were rigged. The opposition wants Maduro out of power and last week, on Venezuela's Youth Day college students went out and protested the current government. What resulted was tear gas and hostile reactions to the protestors. This spurred more protests and since last week 5 people have been killed in them. Also in the past few days US officials have been kicked out of the embassy because the president believes that the US is behind much of the protests. One of the main opposition leaders, Lopez, has also recently been put in jail. Don't worry about me here, Anaco is safe and quiet, all of the action is in the west of the country. We have small protests here, but nothing dangerous. I, personally, also feel this is a necessary step for the country if anything is to ever get better. I can't predict what will happen in the next few days, weeks, months, but I hope it helps the country. This is a place that I will hopefully be coming back to after I leave in June and I'd like to see it in a position that reflects its natural beauty and the kindness of the average person that I have met here.
If you have made it this far in my less than happy post I do have to say that Dereek took Jay, Shannon and I to a music festival 2 weekends ago in Cantaura. There was tons of live salsa music, cattle herding, and bbq meat everywhere. It was pretty fun to be able to get out and do something the different. We came back fairly late after spending the night drinking, dancing to salsa, and eating buttloads of bbq meat. Just to clarify, this was the manliest meat I have ever seen. I'm thinking the process they went through to get this meat was kill animal, spear a tree through it, dig a large pit, set said pit aflame, stick meat skewered by a tree over it and let it roast. It was pretty delicious.
Horses and Cattle
BBQ with lots of meats
Meat pit
Plate of meat
Salsa music and fireworks. =)
School has also been pretty good. We had the 100th day and a Valentine's Day party. The kids seem happy and they seem to be learning a lot. It's pretty cool to see kids who came to me last year not speaking English reading books and decoding words on their own. I'm super happy to get my master's degree in literacy now. I always thought I'd want to teach ESL (hence having that certification, too), but after watching the little kids learn to read, I think that if I'm not a classroom teacher, or get tired of being in a classroom, literacy coach is absolutely the way to go for me. It is the most rewarding thing to see the progress they make. Here are some cute kid pictures from February!
100th day of school. They had to order all of my stars from 1-100
This was a really time consuming task. Lots of numbers and lots of teamwork.
We're learning about money in math. We did a week of just general recognition, now we're working specifically on quarters this week and counting by 25s since it's only 4 numbers to get up to 100. Then we'll do dimes, nickels, and pennies.
Valentine's Day sight word BINGO fun
Silly faces are necessary
We actually had a lot of fun playing sight work BINGO. I think we'll do it more often then just holidays from now on.
On the last period on Valentine's Day we went outside and decorated cookies. I brought cute Valentine's Day sprinkles from the US and was going to get cupcakes to decorate, but I couldn't find cupcakes and frosting so I got cookies and araquipe (like a caramel). I tried to make up for it by getting ice cream too, but the kids had to eat the ice cream with forks because the store had no plastic spoons. #VenezuelaLife
Marcel is allergic to a lot, so he just had cookie sprinkle sandwiches. lol
Once in a while too much sugar is fun for everyone
And we have to end on a silly face
