Something has to be said about the
lack of efficiency down here. I love the mountains, bright birds and flowers;
but not the power outages, water rationing, and general unpredictability of
available goods: sometimes there is toilet paper, sometimes not.
I laughed when I heard of Venezuela running
out of toilet paper, but I wasn’t prepared to discover that this is no
phenomenon. Every time I go to the grocery store I am baffled by the search for
certain items that I want. “Where are the tortillas? Where is the salt? Do they
sell milk?” All of these are questions I have repeated more than once, only to
discover that Venezuelan stores often run out of choice items, or don’t sell
them at all. Fresh milk is only sold in bakeries. The boxed or dried milk is
sold at the only grocery store/bakery in walking distance, so I have learned to
do without. Salsa is a thing of the past. I have made do as best I can by
mixing a tomato paste with chili sauce. It worked out pretty well, but of
course not exactly what I expected.
This will come as no surprise to
those of you who have spent any time in another country, but there are few
brands here- sometimes even just one brand or certain products. For instance,
my grocery sells but one brand of toilet paper (great loss, I know). There is
also only one type of egg. There are 2 brands of spaghetti, and 2 brands of
rice. I am not bothered by the lack of brands, except when it comes to shampoo-
of course they don’t carry my favorite kind.
The water shortages are still a
puzzle to me. I’m not sure what causes them, but I’m almost sure it’s not
actually a lack of water. I think it has more to do with failures in the
general upkeep of the water filtration system, but I’m not really sure. Some
buildings have their water rationed on a regular basis, but mine just randomly
turns the water off for a few hours every couple of weeks or so.
For those of you who have never
lived in a country with this issue, water rationing is this: the building
allows you to use water for a period of time every day, say 1 hour in the
morning and 1 hour in the evening. The rest of the time there is no running
water. Like I said, thankfully my building has only cut water every now and
again, and never for more than a few hours, but I can’t be sure my luck will
hold out.
Power outages in my building have
also been random, but thankfully less frequent than the water shortages. My
power has gone out 3 times, and only once for more than an hour. I admit that
it was actually exciting for me, rather than frustrating. Of course, had the
power been out for more than an hour or so, I would have started to really feel
the effect.
I feel I could bear the occasional
lack of power and water much better if I could rely on the grocery store to
provide everything I need. I miss milk the most, but there is no valid reason
why Venezuelans shouldn’t embrace Salsa or at least sell pico de gallo.
However, in the end I reconcile
myself to the simple, but important benefits of living here: a great job and
salary, finally having a class of my own, and a much-sought-for experience in
another country. Of course having the ocean only an hour and a half away, and
the beautiful scenery can’t be ignored either.
Oh! And I forgot to mention, there
are some delicious foods here that I will never be able to find in the US:
large and tasty avocados (they are green here, not purple), hand-made passion
fruit juice and orange juice, cachapas (cornmeal pancake omelets with unique Venezuelan
cheese inside), and arrepas (potato pita/type things stuffed with your choice
of shredded beef, cheese, avocado or just about anything else!). Fried
plantains are also a favorite of many, but I personally prefer the organic
bananas I can find in the store or at fruits and vegetables stands. The fact
that the US dollar is worth a lot more than the Venezuelan Bolivare is a huge
plus as well- I can buy food down here for about a third of the price I would
pay in the US.
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