Things to do, People to meet

You do come across a lot of interesting people when you travel.

I wonder why this is. Is it the old cliche that 'gap years' and the like are reserved for the innately adventurous of spirit? Or is it maybe that the mere act of travelling forces you to be exposed to a broader circle of people than you would naturally meet at home, because you are being moved out of your comfort zone?

Anyroad, I've met a lot of interesting fellow travellers (note the pun) in Venezuela, and each has a story to tell.

For example, the 57 year old Dutchman who has come to Venezuela to be reunited with his estranged daughter. He was last here 30 years ago, just before she was born, travelling throughout South America as... a buddhist monk. Obviously, that was derailed by breaking the vows of celibacy and impending birth of daughter... but he went back to Europe and has now returned to teach English and volunteer at a Meditation/social Work kind of centre.

Or the American woman who has lived here for thirty years. Apart from the day job as a teachers she doubles as a rock singer and does covers of The Doors, Janis Joplin, Pink Floyd and the like. I've been invited to her show tomorrow.

Or the Canadian former professor of Marketing from a university in Texas who apparently had a life-changing experience witnessing poverty in Estonia. He decided to come to Venezuela to set up a charitable foundation to tackle some of the problems here. I have not discussed global capitalism with him yet. He is also writing a spy novel, which he believes 'could be an international hit' and wants me to proofread it for him.

Or an English filmmaker (not a teacher this time) who lives in Venezuela because of the lifestyle which can be afforded on an irregular salary. He is around forty, spent years in London as a DJ, and is the grandson of Ernest Barker, who was a famous professor of political theory at Balliol, my old Oxford College.

There's also a 19 year old girl from London of Nigerian descent who will be studying at the Glasgow school of art, a 27 yr old Venezuelan studying philosophy who wants to do a Masters in Eastern Religion in Japan, an Englishwoman who is the wife of James Ingham, the BBC correspondant here, a Trinidadian former economics teacher, some Haitians, a Christian biochemist from Wyoming, some Venezuelan/Americans.. among others.
The longest serving international teacher has been in Valencia (sleepy mid-sized town 2 hours from here, little to do apart from play footbal and watch movies) for seven years now.
It's very possible to get stuck out here I think, particularly if you marry a Venezuelan, which some do. Also, maybe this kind of experience appeals to people who for whatever reason don't fit in that well back home.

Sorry again for the lack of updates... I'll try and keep it up a bit better.
Niall

Sniff.

I have a cold.

It's really hot outside.


This is miserable.



In other news though, I'm more cheered up now. Lots of interesting new colleagues at work, and more things to tell you.. soon...

Keep reading :)

N.

Back online!

Hi y'all. Thanks to everyone who harassed me to get on with another entry. Work has been difficult recently... my Limerick boss left the company without warning two weeks ago. I assumed he had had his fingers in the till or something, but I have since heard via the rumour mill that he resigned in disgust about racist comments made by a bigger boss.
Hence, the rhesus monkeys are now in full charge. I predict a slow decline into chaos and torpidity. We shall see.

However, from my perspective, things are still ok. I got to go to Morrocoy on the Caribbean coast a couple of weeks back... white sand, palm trees, water that is emerald green for about 30 feet out to sea, then turns into the deepest blue... basically, your stereotypical Caribbean scene. I got badly sunburnt, but there was a lot of rum,so it all turned out to be worth it. It was especially amusing when one american in our company decided to beat up another american and everyone needed to restrain him.

Anyhow, running out of internet time, so goodbye for now... more (not too much) later....

Third world Poverty

Well dear readers, how long it has been since last I talked to you. Apologies to my small and no doubt dwindling faithful band, it´s sometimes difficult to dredge up the inspiration to write chatty posts with the occasional burst of wit when sometimes, even here, nothing much really happens.
Not that this is meant to be me complaining, because it isn´t, but I want to write a bit about how difficult it is to make ends meet here... for to dispel the myth that the Third World is cheap. Here isn´t. This is, I think, largely because of two factors ' lots and lots of products are imported, not just luxuries,making the place a kind of caribbean iceland, and the government has artificially fixed the rate of exchange with the dollar, meaning that the strong pound cannot be as devastatingly expensive as it is elsewhere.

I earn approximately 1,325,000 bolivares a month. This high'sounding number translates into a little over 300 Sterling, which is less impressive. Of this, approx. 400,000 goes on rent, and i have to spend 3 to 4 thousand a day on the subway and internet fees to talk to you fine people. Since I borrowed 800,000 bolivares from my company to pay the initial deposit on my house, I also have to repay 160,000 a month towards that.
This leaves a little under 170,000 a week. A meal out can cost 20,000 a day, or submitting to the drudgery of my self'made rotation of spaghetti and chicken, spaghetti and ham, spaghetti and egg or plain spaghetti for a week will cost about 100,000 to 120,000 if luxuries like coffee and ice cream are to be paid for. Then, to do anything fun, like go to a movie or a nightclub, costs 15,000 to 20,000, just for entrance, not drinks.


Should you overindulge and fail to get up at 530 AM in time for a class, that´s 22,000 off your salary for registering a ´TDG´ (Teacher Didn´t Go). This also moves you further along the conveyor belt to being fired (I skipped a class on Friday to go to the beach, but don´t tell anyone....)


Needless to say, it makes up for a rather poor existence, or else one supported by occasional use of the international Nationwide debit card. I didn´t expect to get rich here, but living on the breadline wasn´t really what I thought a professional job entailed.