I am trying to write about things that may seem normal to me, but may be interesting to those of you living in the REAL WORLD. Sometimes , I don't even realize my life is different until I share it with someone and they look at me like I am crazy!!
Like , my daughter called from Paraguay, and says,"Mom, is dengue really THAT dangerous. I mean I grew up with it and it is a fact of life, you get a cold, you get malaria, you get dengue." Apparently, there is a dengue breakout in Paraguay and they are VERY concerned. In this little, poor backward country, she was visited by officials from the government to make sure everyone was doing their part to prevent it, and here in Venezuela , Indians are dying all the time from malaria and other mosquito born illnesses and with the wealth of the recent petro dollars...they just die.(Of course, the dengue expert would be Beth! Her whole family had it in December)
But her question made me realize , we do take things as a fact of life that might be a little different for others. So I am trying to view my life through the eyes of those of you in the USA.
So yesterday.. we left the grocery store, where there was no meat, very little chicken(things like necks and feet) no sugar,no milk and alot of Pasta. Not sure why so much pasta. But the lines were crazy with people buying TV's, DVD players, etc. We tried to price a dryer, but dryers are not made here and I cant find a single one to check prices on as I am trying to price mine to sell.I didn't think of this as odd.
On the way home, a 10 minute trip, we ran into a protest by the University students. The roads were blocked and they were burning tires. If you get caught in these , they sometimes burn vehicles. So we try and back track to get home,but run into more road blocks. Finally, 1 hour and 15 minutes later, we made it home. This was frustrating, but still normal.Until I mentioned it to a friend who was shocked.
My husband was out today trying to check on shipping costs to Paraguay, and ended up having to come home since he was blocked by...more riots. Have to wait and try next week. He has been trying for a week already to get an estimate. Normal.
He came in the other day with 5 kilos of WHITE sugar. And a ton of mushrooms. He had a sheepish grin on his face and I asked him, "Do we need 5 kilos?" He said he was in the store, and everyone in line was buying sugar, which we haven't seen in awhile, and so he felt compelled to buy the same. It seemed like a good idea at the time!
I warned him that he needs to be careful about buying WHITE POWDER SUBSTANCE sold by the kilo!! So we have 5 kilos of sugar and 2 and a half kilos of fresh mushrooms. I hope the government doesn't raid me for hoarding!!!!
As I write this I have been listening to the Venezuelan Air force practice in the new jets purchased from Russia.
Anyway, just thought I would share my day with you all.
12 comments:
Sugar and mushrooms huh? LOL
Please be extra careful when you are traveling through there. I will say a prayer for you and your family.
Your normal day is fascinating and full of intrigue. Thank you for sharing. And those Iranian pilots training in Venz. is unreal.
Yep, our normal days are, well, interesting! I haven't noticed too many shortages since I stocked up a while ago. It's interesting to me that on the other side of town there are no shortages. One of my friends brought me a bag of sugar (white) the other day...no big deal. I don't get it...
Caraqueña, maybe it has to do with being closer to the capital? I dont know. I was told beef would be back, that the government cut a deal with the grocers...
Sherry, We avoid the protests. that is why it took us so long, but we do try and be careful.
Serendip, It is supposed to be for a short 4 weeks or so that they are to train. or so I've been told.
Wow...your normal day is really quite different from mine that is for sure.
I knew you weren't normal. J/K!! Will be praying
At least you share it with a sense of humor! Keep that! Do you want to hear about my normal day? Naw, that's what I thought!
You could write the next great biography---start now so you can afford to get out of the country when the time comes!!
It's one of those writings that will be biographical and others will believe it to be fiction!
Hey, I wonder what it would be like if our "normal" day was really normal...like we don't have to fight guys for the "last" bottle of oil on the shelf! haha
Another thought: I've always wondered, even back to the good ole days of mile-long gas lines during the paro (aww..you missed it!), that it seemed that in the barrios and such places, things weren't missing. Just in the parts of town where hhh's enemies are. Same today, maybe? My sweet "barrio" friends have sugar, etc. Could it be true? I haven't seen white sugar in a while--but I've become acquainted with all kinds of sugar. Do you guys know how many varieties of sugar capitalism can come up with? "washed" sugar, "integral" sugar, "molasses" sugar, don't even know if I've seen all varieties yet!
Beth,
Yeah, I did find sugar with honey and now prefer brown sugar in my coffee.
Matt has been our HEROE ever since the PARO when he rescued Jackie at the airport! We have some fotos, somewhwere of us being number 200 and something in a gasline.Need to dig those out.
I am trying to timeline some events and since we left the first of Febraury, I wasn't here when the strike ended, do you remember?
Everyone,
Yes, we have been asked to write a book and so you are all our guinea pigs , sorry!
OOPS! Matt took Jackie and Ruthy TO the airport.
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