The Liberator and other aspects of Venezuelan life

I had an interesting afternoon today, even though I didn't get as much work done as I should have. When I went to the archive this morning there was a young man working there who looked familiar, but I do tend to see some of the some people in the archives without really knowing there. Anyway, he asked me if I was working on slaves and I affirmed that I was. He told me he was also and asked if I wanted to get coffee later and talk about our work. I said sure (well, I actually said "como no". So when the archive closed we set out for coffee. He headed over to the museum in the cathedral; howerver, the coffee shop there was closed. I commented that I had not been to that museum. He looked surprised and asked if I had been to la casa Bolivar and I confessed that I had not made it there yet either. La casa Bolivar is the home where Simon Bolivar - liberator of South America - was born. So we headed over to first the museum and then the house. It was quite interesting and I learned some stuff about Bolivar. I know, you are now all saying "Oh no, not another history lesson!" Well, what can I say. It's what I do. I won't bore you all with the life of Simon Bolivar. But you should understant that he is a very important figure here. In every city in Venezuela there must be a Plaza Bolivar complete with the requisite statue. So, here are some of the things I picked up today. Bolivar was a Venezuelan born Spaniard who traveled to the Caribbean, Mexico, and Europe before returning to Venezuela to start the independence movement from Spain. He issued his proclamation of independence from Jamaica, and wrote it in both Spanish and English. He married in Spain, but his wife died, who was something like 19 when they married, died a few years later and he never remarried. (He did have a lover though, whose name I forget, but lived with him in la quinta Bolivar, which I visited in Bogota). He led the movement for independence from Venezuela to Colombia then Bolivia and Ecuador and finally to Peru, where he met up with the southern liberator San Martin. Bolivia, obviously, took his name for their country. OK, end of history lesson. Anyway, why this young man wanted to spend the afternoon with a gringa old enough to be his mother I don't know, but we finally made it to a coffee shop and sat there talking about politics, Venezuelan and North American, culture, the influence of the church, corruption and lack of respect for law, and other aspects of life in Venezuela until they closed the coffee shop. All in all, a very nice afternoon. The other big thing in the past week was the refigerator problem, which I am grateful to report is fixed after two visits by the repairmen, a new fan, several bags of ice, loss of some food, and a wasted day and a half on my part. But not as frustrating as the electric company, and overall proof that you can get good service here. These guys came out on a Saturday, which was the following day from when I called them.

Things seem to have settled down after the trading of insults between Chavez and the US and the mutual expulsion of diplomats. Last week or so, (maybe more, I've lost track of time) Dick Cheney compared Chavez to Hitler. Nice. In return Chavez said the US was ruled by a crazy man and called Bush the Hitler of North America. Then, Chavez said one of the guys from the embassy had to leave Venezuela because he was a spy. (a spy in the embassy - surely not) The next day the US forced a Venezuelan diplomat to leave the US while claiming it was not retaliation. Then Chavez started insulting Tony Blair, calling him a puppet of the US and worse, I guess. If it didn't have the potential to develop into serious stuff, I'd feel like saying "boys, learn to play together nicely."

I just had the perfect view outside my window of fireworks. I don't know why, but from time to time there are fireworks in my neighborhood. Being on the seventh floor, I have a great perspective.

A new telenovela started last week here, so I decided to try one from the beginning. I really am not a fan of soap operas in any language, but it's a good way to practice my Spanish and the telenovelas here are really a cross between our soaps and series like ER or Desperate Housewives. They are an hour and are on every week night. This one is not too bad, but I'm still working on who all the people are and what their relationship with each other is. I also try to catch apretty well known Spanish program called Aqui no hay quien viva. It's a weekly comedy program about the neighbors in a building. The Spain Spanish is more difficult for me, but it's a pretty good program. Of course, with cable I get many of the same programs as in the states, just a few weeks later. And lots of reruns.

An update to my previous post - los leones won the Caribbean Series, as I can attest to by the fireworks and shouting outside my window at 1:00 in the morning. I figure that's when the fans returned from Valencia to Caracas.

OK, enough for now.

The pictures are from one of the beaches in the state of Vargas. It is the same area that had the terrible mudslides in December 1999 in which thousands of people died and many homes were lost. The picture was actually taken in Summer 2004, when I was here the first time, from the window of my friend's apartment.

Saludos from Caracas.