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.
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| 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!
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