Hope the polar vortex lets go of you soon (if you're cold) and that spring meets you soon. Things are copecetic, but boring. It's all good though because it's now 100 during the day, and the days left are under 80. So that's cool.
School is back to near normal, but the situational mental strain is still looming like the smoke lingering from the mountain's fires. Lot's of teachers are looking for mini-trips to stay sane, so a bunch of us took one to the only place in Venezuela where I blended it in (meaning lots of other white people).
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| He still looms. |
Political Landscape
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| Highway demonstration. |
Things have quieted down significantly in the past week, with the exception of one incident where the government arrested two mayors and a police chief. The police chief part is significant in the sense that a family member of his attends this school. The arresting of these opposition public officials has definitely drawn the ire of protesters and supporters across the country.
The roadblocks are almost entirely gone from the city. Only a few remnants remain in certain neighborhoods and businesses are starting to return to normal working hours. The problem is those normal working hours are fluid as a march or uprising can take place almost any time and then the businesses close down.
The government just instituted a new economic policy, SICAD 2, which is to combat the parallel (black market rate). It drove the parallel rate from 87 a few weeks a go to 58 today. Some see it as a way to combat inflation and allowing more access to dollars, while others view it as a devaluation of the currency that will fail. To quote Jon, "They are holding up a shit sandwich with shit scaffolds." Only time will tell what will happen.
School
We fired back up the CIC education machine last Thursday after a bout with the Online Learning Model. After awful attendance Thursday, slightly better Friday, and a little better today, we're nearing full strength. Our school's official data says 81% of our secondary kids are here, and I think it's fairly accurate. I also think that 85% of our kids forgot what school was about and 75% are missing some work. These stats are OK because 60% of the time statistics are correct 100% of the time. With the quarter done next week, I feel this will end badly for them. But hey, they earned it. Our superintendent, thinks we've been too lenient on the grading and don't have enough F's. Well, they could be coming in droves this quarter.
To make up for lost contact time we've added a revolving period at the end of the day. Our contract now runs from 7:30 am to 4:10 pm, so we got that going for us. Many activities and events have been cancelled or shortened, and sports practices are condensed. The days have been exhausting for me, so who knows how the kids are doing. Oh well though, there's no other way without adding days at the end, and they can't do that because we all fly out within days of the original end of school. My schedule now has school until 4:10, then PT until 5:15, then working out, dinner, and then an hour and a half or so until bed. Full day.
Colonial Tovar
In our attempt to maintain sanity and experience a more "normal" sense of reality, a group of us went up the mountain to the city of
Colonial Tovar. This city was established in 1843 by German immigrants who landed in Venezuela and walked up the mountain to live in a cooler climate. The town is a time warp back into German traditional housing and agriculture. The workers in the restaurants wear traditional garb and serve the standards of sausages and sauerkraut- which was awesome.
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| The hotel. |
The roads were narrow (cars creep by inches from you), hilly and the feel was vintage, but it was a good escape from the status quo of Valencia. The sounds of the blended cultures are evident. You hear traditional German elements (accordion, singing) with Venezuelan rhythms from cars and restaurant speakers.
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| Typical vendor. |
The streets are not only filled with cars, but all motorcycles, four-wheelers, and cyclists. While there, we checked out the street markets that were full of fresh produce, jams, treats, and small trinkets. I scored some coffee, various jams, a hackysack, and a cool bota bag/wine skin. We also checked out and took pictures of the city center and the church.
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| A street with Randi and Rexin talking to a passerby. |
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| A look up the hill from the church. |
We were all excited to have some different food and be able to purchase clean, organic produce. The cool mountain evenings were awesome, we actually all got to wear hoodies. The beer, Tovar, is in my mind the best in Venezuela. It's a little more expensive (comparatively, not complaining) and a little harder to find, but totally worth it.
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| Yours truly with a statue of the liberator, Simon Bolivar (and a weird photo bomber). |
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| Me (with four hands and three beers) with Rexin and his accordion. |
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| A strip mall and a friendly guy with a stroller. |
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| A taxi (translation: not overfill). |
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| Not a boy band. Morris, Jon, and some bearded local. |
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| Jon in front of a creepy Jesus in a casket. I don't get it either. |
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| They are knickers not capris...oh and the church form the outside. |
The only trouble we had was some car temperature issues on the way up and once on the way back. One car had a leak in a line or the engine coolant container. It was a little stressful at times, but we made our stops "safety meetings" and keep the vibe positive. The minor hiccup was worth the weekend of relief.
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| Car seats...get it? No? Aw... |
Also, on the way back our friend Brittany decided to do one of those parachute/glider deals (in Venezuela of all places). We all sat, had a few drinks, and watched the stream of people flying up and down the mountainside. A few (like hers) didn't make it back to the launch point due to a lull in the wind so they got picked up in a truck.
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| This kid was a falconer, no really he was. |
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| Cheesy, cliche, instagram-esq mountain pic. |
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| Cooler (cliche) picture with the parachute people in the background. |
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| My first selfie. |
We stopped at town on the way back to let the car cool and grab some food. We went to a mall food court (scary food) and ended up seeing huge groups of people watching TV screens in a variety of restaurants. The big soccer match of Real Madrid vs Barcelona was on and heated. The "El Clasico" ended up going to Barcelona due to a hat trick by Lionel Messi drawing an emotional reaction to both sides.
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| TGI Fridays crowd. No drink specials just futbol- El Clasico. |
Ryan Robinson's Links of Knowledge
A woman recording events would not give up here phone when the GNB tried to take it from her. The scuffle lead to a National Guardswoman getting her
fingernail broken and beating the woman with the cellphone with her helmet.
President Maduro uses a
rape joke on national TV.
Arresting other opposition party mayors and a police chief.
Panama provides its seat at the OAS (Organization of American States) to opposition congresswoman Maria Corina Machado and the press weren't allow to hear
what she had to say.
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| No mom, I didn't drink all of that...there's room left. I kid, I kid. |
Well that's all I got. A Long week of work and a 1.5 day trip to Colonal Tovar. It was a good escape from the hubbub of Valencia. Next week Caracas for the Brazil visa (failed once already) and the week after Cuba. Hopefully, I'll have more to share of interest in the coming weeks and share it with you.
Until Next Time,
KRS
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