Greetings friends!!!
Yes, despite the rumors circulating on the Internet, I am alive and well here in Venezuela. I have yet to die, although the mosquitoes have banded together and are trying to give me dengue (seriously, there are thousands and they NEVER DIE).
School has begun and we are almost finished with our first week (only 176 days till school is out--yes!!). I have a grand total of 9 students in my two classes and one student is leaving in mid-September, so I will have four 5th graders and four 6th graders. The drawback is that the public schools start in September, so we'll probably pick up a few more students in the next couple weeks.
Life in Anaco is pretty interesting. There is really only one mall type of place, called Unicasa (I swear I've been there almost daily). There is a grocery store, some clothing shops, two Internet cafes and a shwarma place (reminds me of Egypt!). There is also a McDs across the street, which isn't too bad (I know, I broke my boycott after getting sick in Egypt).
I live on campus, which is pretty cool. We have some mango and cashew trees growing around the houses, as well as some banana trees and a coconut palm. You can even find a lime tree, if you look closely.
My class is also the proud caretakers of a tortoise named Jennifer (the boys voted for it). She is a native species that the locals eat as a delicacy around Easter. The director here is looking to save some and start up a little reserve at the school, which would be pretty cool.
Other than that, life isn't too bad. Soccer is on all the time (sweet) and I finally figured out my stove. A brief note though, the president here has said that any foreigner that bad mouths his regime will be expelled from the country. I don't really wish to test that statement, so don't expect too many negative comments coming from here. They own almost every utility and even the Internet provider that we use and I'd prefer to stay out of trouble for a while. Although if you want an interesting read, check out BBC.com and read about his speech to the national assembly yesterday. Awesome.
God Bless
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
just a friendly reminder that the fruit of the cashew is poisonous... a little something i picked up from brazil
glad to hear you are alive and well and I'm glad I didn't hear the rumors of your death :)
Hope you have a great school year - sounds like a good start. We are already off and running here! Stay safe and have great fun! Kandi
Hope you get your own computer soon. Sounds like life is starting out OK for you. Hope you have enough kids for a decent soccer team. DAD
It's good to hear you're settling in with few complaints. We kick off the school year in two days here at NAIS. Woohoo! Really, though, I'm looking forward to this year's work. It should be interesting with Azza out of the picture, though less interesting due to your absence.
We miss you here, man. Let me know how things progress.
ma3 salemma
Post a Comment