Ultima Noche

Tonight is my last night in Venezuela. Wow. I think I'll post a more "reflecting on the year" post in a week or something but I feel that my last night deserves a blog post.

I'm feeling very bittersweet. I have made many friends here, something that became clear to me this past week as I tried to say goodbye to them all. It just wasn't possible. I took the advice of a good friend and made sure that the time I could spend with those closest to me was spent wisely, and to not run around to all parts of the city to see everyone I've ever met here. That being said, I did do my fair share of running around. A few of those visits resulted in my walking home a little later at night than I liked. Tonight, for instance, I left from the Casa Hogar with my camera tied to a belt loop hanging down inside my pants. "Venezuela style". Carry only as much money as necessary for wherever you're going, camera not in a pocket if with you at all, phone not in hand. Look confident. Puff out the chest (?) to look...intimidating? That part maybe not so much in my case. The reality of life here is hard to forget with murders and robberies happening all around me daily. That is one thing I won't miss about living in San Felix.

Back on topic. Not sure how I got on that tangent. Saying goodbye to friends was a bit of a bummer. "See you in a year, hopefully", is just not a great goodbye. But what I remind myself is that 1, I'm fortunate to have the option of returning next summer and 2, I'm fortunate to have made such great friends that the goodbye is difficult.

While leaving feels strange, and there are many people I will miss dearly, there are many people back home whom I have been missing dearly. Knowing that I will very soon be reunited with many of them is exhilarating.

It's past my bedtime. Getting up again in just over 4 hours for a long day of travel. Next post from Minnesota!

Something Gregoria made me for my birthday. It was on the cake. 

Cumpleaños

Friday was my birthday! I spent a lot of time at the Casa Hogar. They made me a cake and a piñata which were great surprises. I ended up eating two lunches on Friday. One here at the rectory like normal with Fr. Greg and Fr. Tim, and a second directly afterwards with the Casa Hogar. They made me a special lunch, Luis did a lot of the cooking himself which was cool. His present to me. We had chicken and yuca and salad, I was already full from my first lunch but it was really tasty so I just kept eating. In the evening we attempted to do the piñata, but couldn't find a string to string it up from the tree. Solution: Luis climbed the tree and dumped candy down onto us from above. It was great. We ate cake and listened to the CD of american music that I made Omish months ago. "No Sleep" bumpin. So awesome. They made me a sign saying happy birthday and each of the boys signed it, definitely a keeper. I made them a CD of pictures from my time here with them and we watched that on the projector screen which was really fun. They hadn't seen hardly any of the pictures, so the trip down memory lane was great, a lot of laughs.

On Saturday the Brito's had a little party for me at their house. Gregoria made the cake which was fantastic! It had pictures on it of me and my friends, both from here and MN. I was really surprised to see that and really happy that she took the pains to get that done. Julianna and Jakeline made an absolutely ridiculous piñata that they took great pride in. After the happy birthday song was completed and I had blown out the candle (and made a wish!) everyone yelled at me to bite the cake. I was a little confused but just went with it...just to get my face smashed into the cake. Everyone knew this was coming except me. I had frosting up my nostrils. It was great. It was a fun night, with dancing and jokes as usual with the Brito family. They love to make jokes and poke fun. I'm so grateful to have such good friends here in Venezuela who went out of their way to make my birthday a good one.

El Campo

Yesterday I spent the day at the campo. We left around 9 to get out there, and after that I have no sense of time for the rest of the day, until this morning really. It was great. My phone's battery was dead and I had no reason to check the time. We got to work preparing the food right away when we arrived. Angelo and I peeled about a million plantains, which is a lot harder than peeling bananas. We then threw them all in a pot with some water which cooked over a fire for an hour or so. When we pulled them out we threw them into a mortar and pestel kind of set up and mashed them all up. Formed that into almost a loaf of bread like shape and sliced it up. Surprisingly good. Everyone had their job to do slicing up peppers and onions and whatnot or preparing the chicken. It turned out to be a great meal. We spent the day just hanging out and eating, swimming in the river (which was strangely similar to the river that runs through my backyard), and saying hello to the numerous dogs, cows, and horses that were around. It was a really nice day. We hopped in the back of the pick up as it was getting dark to head back to the city. A car cutting in front of us almost caused a major collision which was pretty scary and shook everyone up. I was laying down in the back so I couldn't see anything, I just heard the slamming of breaks and screeching of locked up tires sliding on pavement. Then lots and lots of swearing at the driver of the offending car. But we didn't crash so it's ok!

Miller, who the party was for a couple weeks ago.

Yummy

Looks like home!

Check out that tan line

This reminds me of Honduras!

This morning I went to the Casa Hogar. All the boys recently went to get a medical checkup, and it turns out that ALL of them, save Enrique, Jhon Kevin, and Omish, have hernias. They're going to pretty much take over the clinic, it sounds like, on May 11th with all 11 (Luis and Jesus have hernias as well) of them having surgery the same day.

This face happened while talking about how he wanted to kiss one of the gringas from the St. Thomas group. If you're reading this, Becca, watch out...

Fin de Semana

Wow. I have a lot to write about tonight.

First up: My trip to the seminary. On Friday morning I hopped on a bus headed to Ciudad Bolivar. I made it there no problem, but I'll leave out the embarrassing details of how I wandered the city for an hour thinking that I knew the way to the seminary on foot because I wanted to save money on a taxi, only to end up walking in circles and ultimately pay for a taxi anyway. I guess those are pretty much the details. And that I got sunburned in the process.

I made it to the seminary in time for lunch, and had a good time seeing the seminarians who I became good friends with during my week there in November, and have seen every so often in San Felix. During lunch the rector made an announcement that we would be cleaning for the afternoon, and clean we did. They brought in a big truck into which we threw all kinds of junk, including broken fans, old bricks, tree branches, gatorade bottles, etc. It felt good to do some physical labor, as I don't do much (or any) in my usual routine. It reminded me of working for John Fox a couple summers ago. And also reminded me of why I don't want to do that for the rest of my life. After loading up the truck completely full, Jose Antonio and I, along with two other seminarians, rode in the back out to the garbage dump.

The garbage dump was something I don't think I will ever forget. There were people living in it. Not living next to it, or nearby, but in it. Their houses were built out of the junk in which they were living. Almost entirely open, we could see right into the tiny space they called home. The one I could see most clearly consisted of a mattress, a refrigerator that wasn't plugged into anything, and an old broken dresser. Something that probably used to be a bedsheet but now is at best a dirty rag served as a partial wall on one side. The worst part was the amount of bugs everywhere. You know a bug swarm like when there is a dead animal on the side of the road? Very thick, loud, and definitely not something you want to approach. That kind of bug swarm was all over their shelters. A woman was lying down on the mattress, and the bugs were flying every, swarming all over her and the whole area. It was absolutely horrible. Three of the men jumped into the back of the truck with us and then did all of the work dumping it all out. They kept things that they thought would prove useful. A couple suitcases with big holes in them, the broken fans, a wire screen. The men were the dirtiest I have ever seen a human being. One man was wearing jeans that used to be white, something I only know because of a few spots near the waist that the white shone through. The rest was completely black with dirt and grime; I can only imagine how long he's been wearing that same pair of jeans. Jose told me that the garbage dump outside of Puerto Ordaz is even worse. If I can get a ride there I may go to see it before I leave.

The rest of my time at the seminary was a bit less saddening! We played a few games of volleyball on Friday which was great. I got to hang out with Jose and some other friends for the evening, and also had a good time talking with a priest from Spain who is quite the jokester and interesting to talk to. On Saturday morning I went to downtown Ciudad Bolivar with Jose, who got his hair cut, and then got to the bus station. I ended up taking not a bus, but a small car back to San Felix which was interesting. It wasn't quite unofficial, not a random guy taking us, but it wasn't super official either. We paid the tax to use the bus terminal (2 bolivares) and the four of us hopped in his car (3 random women). It was much quicker than taking the bus. However, I had a little issue going through a military checkpoint. I didn't have my passport with me which was just dumb on my part since we had had a similar problem going through the same checkpoint with the University of St. Thomas group. I had a copy of my passport with me as always, so with that and about 15 minutes of convincing the 5 soldiers that I wasn't, well actually I don't know what I was convincing them of but I basically told them over and over that I'm a volunteer, teaching English to people in San Felix and after searching my bag and asking me a million questions, they let me go.

Father Wille from The Congo, who I wrote about in my post from my first trip to the seminary. 

Saturday evening I was invited to go to a show in Puerto Ordaz with a couple friends who live there. It was drastically different than my experiences here in San Felix, but they are really good people and I had a fun night. The show was a magic/comedy show which was impressive and absolutely hilarious. One joke involved a little jab at Hugo Chavez, the president. Long story but during that joke each card of a deck of cards had a name written on the back, "Ana" on the 2, "Carlos" on the 6, and "Hugo" on the Joker. Half of the audience laughed really hard, the other half did not. After the show we went to the apartment of a friend of my friend Maria, which was, again, quite different than what I'm used to here in San Felix. We went out to a discoteca and had a great time. I met a guy from Switzerland which was quite random. He approached me and asked in English, "Where you from bro?" which threw me for a loop as I was very much in Spanish mode. Apparently he's living in Caracas for two months on vacation and was here to check out Puerto Ordaz. His Spanish was good but English just mediocre, so we talked in kind of a mix of the two.

Today I had my last English class. I decided not to have class next week since I'll be busy getting my room packed up and seeing friends. We had a final exam which they did really well on. It made me feel good knowing that the kids have, in fact, learned something and had a good time doing so. After the test I had some pop and cookies and candies for them all, we hung out and laughed and had a good time. I brought a English and Spanish beginners bible from Minnesota in January, and I put the kids names in a cup and gave it to a lucky winner. She was pretty excited about it, as lame as a beginners bible may sound. We took a group picture just before they left. It was kinda sad thinking that I won't see most of them again, but I really enjoyed my time with them, as crazy as they were sometimes.

Tomorrow I'm going to the campo to hang out at the river all day, I'll try to get some good pictures and post about it on Wednesday!

Falta Poco

Time is flying by, and I'm realizing how little time I have left here. I'm leaving on May 11th which is just 2 and a half weeks away! I am excited to get home and be with friends and family, but it is going to be weird leaving here. Today Gregoria asked me when I'm going to come back, and I told her I hope to be able to come next summer. That seems so far away! I've made great friends here and saying goodbye to them until maybe 13 or 14 months from now already feels strange and I'm still a few weeks out from the final goodbye. I'm taking advantage of each day and really appreciating all the little things that have made this experience what it has been.

I thought I'd just post some pictures I have from the last few weeks. Also, here is a link to a video Fr. Tim made of the parish festival on Easter Sunday. I wrote a little about that in my last post. It's the church's "birthday", since it's called Jesucristo Resucitado (Resurrected Christ if cognates aren't your forte), so the first half of the video happy birthday is being sung. A lot of the people who appear in the video are good friends of mine. The dancers in white are coming to Minnesota in September. It's a cool video, check it out! Oh and at about 1:20 starts the usual birthday song here, much more interesting and meaningful than what we sing in the U.S.!

Escuelita in the Casa Hogar

Classic

With some friends on Easter Sunday

Party in the campo! One of the Brito uncles had a huge birthday party out where he lives in the middle of nowhere. 150+ people and a live band, it was great.