Space, Car, Freedom

October 21, 2007

Good news on the home front.

We have officially moved into a new place. The school has given us two apartments rolled into one. They removed part of a wall that separated two places and gave it to us. We now live on half the top floor of a building called Colonial. The other two units across the hall are lived in by two other teachers so it’s like one big happy family.

We now have four bedrooms, two baths, two porches, two living rooms, and two kitchens. Zachary gets one of the master bedrooms and we get the other (on the other side of the building). We have ceiling fans, big windows, and a delicious cross breeze. Instead of being a thirty minute walk from school, we are now a ten minute walk from school. Whereas before we had tons of construction and no real neighborhood, now we are in an established area with no construction. We can walk to a bakery, pharmacy, liquor store, bar, butcher, mini market, pizza parlor, hamburger joint, etc. It’s fantastic and we love it!

The other great part is that we have finally purchased a car. We are the proud new owners of a 2007 Ford EcoSport. It’s a small SUV with about 15,000 miles on it. It has four wheel drive, power windows, air con, and an MP3 player. It took awhile as there is a ton of red tape for buying a car and I don’t really speak enough Spanish to be able to complete the transaction on my own. The school totally helped out though and made it almost easy.

In the last few weeks we have also procured Venezuelan ID cards. They’re called Cedulas and they are necessary if you want to have something of a normal existence here. One of the strange things about this place is that you need to have an ID for everything, including buying groceries. Today we went to the mall and I bought a map. It cost $5 at the bookstore. In order to complete that transaction, I had to provide my first and last name, ID number, address, and phone number. Had I refused, I would not have been able to buy my map.

Going to get that little card was an experience in itself. We left school early on a Thursday. We were driven downtown to the red light district where we entered an old, dilapidated, should have been condemned building and sat on metal chairs. We arrived there around 1:30 and took our place amongst a dozen or so others. We chatted and watched the state workers do the same. There was no movement, no calling people up, just sitting and waiting for something to happen. Eventually, a woman came around and collected up our Passports, causing us to move past the point of no return. Once someone takes that little book, I try to stick to them like glue. Some time later it started to rain. We knew this because water began to pour onto us from above. We scooted our chairs closer together and tried to avoid the growing puddles.

At some point, someone showed up with some equipment to plug into the laptops and common server they had set up. These were tethered together by electrical cords which ran right through the middle of at least one ever increasing puddle. We huddled and hoped that we would get this process over before the whole thing shorted out and caused a fire.

Finally people began stirring, names were being called out, and soon enough I stood before the woman with my Passport. She wanted my father’s full name, my mother’s full name (including her maiden name), address and phone number in the country, address and phone number in America, work place, profession, and marital status, all in Spanish. Next I proceeded to the camera. They held a sheet up next to me just right, insisted I wipe that grin off of my face, and took my picture. From there I had to place each finger on both hands into an electronic scanner. Then I sat down again.

When I heard something that might possibly be my name, I stood and walked over to a man in a red shirt (red is the symbol for those that support Chavez). He had me sign several documents and then he inked up my fingers and had me provide my finger prints again, this time onto paper. After more questions and more signatures, I was allowed to sit down. Sometime later I received my Passport and new Cedula. The whole thing took no less than three hours, not including the drive over and the drive back. It was excruciating.

Now we are official. We have work visas, Venezuelan ID cards, an address, and a car. I think we are here to stay for awhile. Unless of course civil insurrection breaks out in which case our asses will be airlifted out faster than you can say Jack Robinson. I don’t think that will happen, though. The rich and the middle class here are pissed off, no question, but I don’t think they’re fighting mad…yet.

We filled the tank on our new car yesterday and drove to the mountains. We had to dig deep; the car took about nine gallons of fuel and cost a sum total of $2 at the official rate. The drive itself took about two hours. We blazed a trail down the Auto Pista (the freeway) to a town called La Victoria where we headed straight up the side of the mountain. It was a crazy, windy, steep road, but the views were spectacular. We ended at a town called Colonia Tovar; a German settlement tucked into the hills outside of Caracas. It’s a beautiful little village and well worth the drive. We had a tremendous lunch before we walked around the place checking out the trinkets and fresh produce. We climbed back into our car late in the afternoon and headed back home. We hit La Victoria at rush hour. That slowed us way down. Since there is really no speed limit anywhere, though, we made our time back on the freeway. The new car did great.

Now we are settled and ready for visitors. We have lots of room, so come on down. The food is great, the people are friendly, and the countryside is gorgeous.
MJR