(Started)January 27, 2008 (Completed) March 2, 2008
It’s easy to get lulled into a sense of ease here. Life is almost the same as in the U.S. It’s not that hard to forget that we live in a third world country. Then I go and visit the bank.
Banks here are a piece of work. Inflation is high so interest rates are high. Getting a credit card here would be ridiculous. We do have a debit card though. This can be used at various ATM’s and markets around the country. As part of their security measures, however, they block your card every now and then.
Carrie got hers blocked so she had to call the bank. After an hour of struggling through questions about her life in Spanish, they finally unlocked it. It stayed unlocked for almost an hour! When we tried to use it at the travel agent’s that night it was blocked again.
Another issue is one of making deposits for things. We made reservations at a posada for the week of Carnaval. They don’t accept credit cards so the deposit has to be made in cash. I tried and tried to make this happen online, but that system was just a waste of time. Finally I just went to their bank with their account number and a check. This branch is located in a mall. You take a number and wait for them to call it. My number was one hundred away from where they were so Zachary and I went walking to find a cash machine. Unfortunately, my card had been blocked leaving me with little cash.
After three hours of wandering around the mall with no money, they finally called my number and I was able to make a deposit. We had to get a loan from the school until we could get the bank thing worked out. Saturday morning I had to spend thirty minutes on the phone followed by Carrie so we could unblock our cards. Three days later it happened again when I went to the grocery store. Why do they block it? It depends on who you ask, but no one really seems to know. The real answer is; because we live in Venezuela.
That seems to be the answer for everything here. People seem content with the way things are even though they complain about it. Change does not come easily. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s not necessarily good either. I don’t mind the fact that nobody enforces the speed limit, but I hate waiting in line for the bank. I don’t miss everything being as regulated as it is in the States, but a little bit would be nice.
Our friend was having difficulty using her cash card. Each time she tried to make a withdrawal, she was not given any money. Unfortunately, the bank took the funds from her account. Now she is out a little over $1,000 because the bank disagrees with her. There is no formal system for challenging these decisions; she waited at the bank for over three hours to be told that she was lying and that would be the end of it. Welcome to Venezuela.
People here are so used to waiting in line for things that they won’t even try to find alternatives. At the malls there are always lines for the ATM’s. Sometimes these lines are an hour or more long! If you bypass the line, however, and search all levels, you can usually find a machine with little or no line at all. No one here would think of it because they are so used to standing around waiting.
On the up side, it makes trips to the States refreshing. I actually get excited by the short lines. Others think I’m nuts when I get giddy inside the bank because I have only waited ten minutes. It’s the tiny things in life we need to be grateful for.
MJR
Here it is called a “Parilla” and in Mali the folks called it a “braai”, no matter the term, to me it’s a Sunday afternoon BBQ and that is what we did for my birthday! It’s so hard to believe that I turned 40 in Africa only a year ago. The comparison is funny. This year I was surrounded by 20 plus coworkers who have become friends and I was sung to in Spanish under a caney . In Mali the people were miners, we were under a lapa, and the song was in English. But in both places the main course was MEAT, and there was way too much food, lots of sunshine, and a whole lot of beer!
I think this was the first time I felt really myself here. It was so easy. The perfect combination: a grassy field for bubbles, frisbee, and soccer, a couple of drums and a guitar came out, we laughed and ate. It reminded me that this kind of event is one of the things I enjoy most, and that we (Mark and Carrie) host the best! I’ve missed it. I felt so at ease and looked around at the warm faces. They are still so new, yet I am reminded, by each, of a dear friend far away. 
It was fun to play the day away.
