October 22nd, 2010

Return to Venezuela

The countdown has begun! Or shall I say, the countdown has almost concluded!

Sunday, yes, THIS Sunday the 5th of September I will be returning to Venezuela!

This year has marked my longest stint in the United States by far, since I left for Spain in the fall of 2005. Finally after many months I feel as though I have settled in and adjusted to life in my hometown. Just in time to pack up and move again!

And when I say pack up and move, I mean big time! Five suitcases, a giant bin, a guitar and laptop later... hopefully my and my future home´s belongings will be contained. Thankfully my parents are heading down to Venezuela in just over a week so will be helping in the moving process. Don´t worry, this is not all my personal clothing, shoes, books, etc. At least half are wonderful shower and wedding gifts that will help Cristian and I create our first home!

Please pray with me as I say goodbye to friends and family. Pray for safe and uneventful travels. Pray that I will be able to finish packing on time and have all my paperwork and things organized before I leave on Sunday.

My Poor, Abandoned Blog

My poor, abandoned blog. It has been well over a year since I have posted anything. As I prepare for many changes and transitions in the next days, weeks and months, I think I would like to share some of what this last year of absence has held for me.

July 2009:
-July 4th, 2009 God changed my life forever and challenged me to step out in faith and begin dating Venezuelan Cristian Rico.

-July 5th, 2009 I returned to the US, after my second school year in Venezuela working with Campus Crusade for Christ.

-End of July/Beginning of August Along with my brother and sister-in-law, my nearly 60-year-old father, and some other friends, I climbed my first mountain. At 14,494 feet, Mt. Whitney in California is the highest peak in the contiguous United States. *Note: When I say first, I mean first, as I hope to climb many more mountains and have many other adventures in the years to come.

August 2009:
-I traveled to Costa Rica and spent three weeks getting to know the country and the culture better, visiting the Campus Crusade ministry in San Jose, and most noteworthy, getting to know Cristian better. It was a time of really deciding where our relationship was going and deciding our willingness to see what God would do in the next months and years, as for the time being, I had no concrete plans to return to Venezuela soon.

September 2009:
-My training to become a full-time staff member with Campus Crusade began with a 10-day trip to Orlando, Florida.

December 2009:
-December 14-January 5th: I returned to Venezuela to visit my amado (beloved). My parents joined us for Christmas. This was their first visit to Venezuela and more importantly, their first time meeting Cristian. On our last night with my parents, I translated the conversation as Cristian asked my parents' permission to marry me. They said Yes, of course! Boy was it interesting being part of that conversation! As the translator I didn't necessarily participate much, but rather observed and repeated. So lovely to see a wonderful, godly young man nervously explain why he wants to spend the rest of his life with me!

To be continued....

Patience Please

I've been so proud to say that even though I seem to make up for it with other ailments, it has been 9 months or so since I have had a cold or the flu. Moving to Caracas complete with a huge population and much public transit wiped out my immune system for a while last fall, but as the year progressed it seemed to get stronger and I healthier. I'm afraid I finally must swallow my pride though and admit that I've been gotten... and that I've been gotten good this time. I have no voice, and I do believe that I can hear the entire wind section of an orchestra warming-up when I breathe deeply.

So to those awaiting a phone call or response to something, and to those who may not yet know that they are awaiting a phone call from me... Have patience. I am completely convinced that a phone call, however much later than anticipated, in which one can hear and interpret the speech of the person on the other end is much more valuable than a prompt phone call with absolutely nothing, or perhaps some wheezing on the other end.

Announcement

I would like to announce that I am the proud new owner of quite the sunburn. 

For those who don't know me well, I have olive-ish skin which generally tans like crazy but never burns and turns red. After living in Venezuela for two years, just two and a half weeks away from my return to the US... I have my very first Venezuelan sunburn! Actually it is my first real sunburn in as long as I can remember! 

I spent most of this last week in Mérida (where I lived last year). I was there to help orient a group of 12 american students and Campus Crusade staff who arrived last Friday for what we call a Summer Project. They will be in Mérida for about 5 weeks sharing their faith and building relationships with Venezuelan students. I spent all day on campus Thursday and as a result have a beautiful burn. It just makes me laugh, as I equally spent time on campus last year and never got burnt!

Hopefully my beautiful tank top stripes will go away before the wedding in which I´ll be a bridesmaid in just 3 weeks!

The Fruitloop phenomenon

Generally I am a pretty natural, healthy food sort of girl. Nothing overly sugary, pumped with chemical coloring or salt. My motto tends to be something of the "Made by nature, I'll take it; Made by man, no thanks" sort. 

I made the horrible mistake however a few weeks back of going to the grocery store while incredibly hungry. Low and behold there was a whole section of Fruitloops. For some reason they called my name, with gusto. It may be that I was so hungry that anything sounded tasty. It may be that I had some sort of sugar or chemical coloring deficiency in my diet at that moment. Or it may simply be that there it was, something familiar and overly American staring me in the face. Perhaps I was homesick that day. Whatever the reason, I proudly took home my box of Fruitloops and proceeded to consume them a little too quickly in the following days. 

I think I have become addicted. Is there a 12-Step Program for Fruitloop addicts? I just bought my 3rd box today, so I guess I'm not going through them that quickly. I still can't decide however whether I really just like them a lot, or if it again is the familiarity to home. Home of course being the US and not my actual home, as Fruitloops would never in a million years have entered my home as a child.

Ode to TP

I am currently meditating on how very thankful I am for toilet paper. It had never crossed my mind before living in Venezuela as something to be thankful for. In the US it is so incredibly easy to find, always present in numerous styles, sizes and scents, and always in abundance. This is not always the case in Venezuela. On numerous occasions in the last two years we have experienced a scarcity of TP. Last year on a visit from the North West our leadership even packed an entire case of TP in their suitcases to bring to us. 

I have a new respect for this simple daily item. I have consciously counted how little I can get away with using each day. I have used napkins, kleenex, paper towels and even notebook paper as replacements. Yes, today I am so very thankful for toilet paper. 

I almost leapt with joy when I saw a few packages on the shelf in the store today. We haven´t seen it in any stores since last week, when of course we had plenty. I thought to myself... I wonder how many packages I can get away with buying? I wonder if like milk when it was hard to find last year, there is a limit to one or two per family? So I bought two packages and I also bought several packages of kleenex, just in case there is again no TP to be found when we begin to run low again. And here I am, happily home with my toilet paper... writing about it for all the world to see.

Preparing to Say Goodbye

As my year in Caracas is nearing its end I find myself thinking both of the Venezuelan things I will miss and of the American things that I have missed and am eager to see/use/eat, etc. I constantly find myself cracking up as some incredibly obscure item pops into my mind. So, for your entertainment, aside from the very obvious things from both place that I will miss/have missed like family, friends, and even the Spanish language... here are some thoughts:

Things I will miss about Venezuela:

1. I'm sure from earlier posts (and I definitely mean post(s) plurally) about platanos, that no one doubted they would be top on my list!

2. The Christian bookstore across the plaza from my apartment that has wonderfully cheap and small pocket versions of many, many great books. For example, this week I bought a copy of More Than A Carpenter (Más que un carpentero) for approximately $3.50. Living so close and the great prices definitely haven't helped the luggage situation though!

3. Warm weather! I have now officially lived outside of the North West and its cold rainy winters long enough that thinking about the onset of winter this year makes me want to cry! I know I'll survive, but I will make it known now, I don't like being cold!

4. Platano! I know I mentioned this earlier, but in order to truly get across how strongly I feel about the subject I feel that I must mentioned it again. Tajadas, patacones, tostones, san cochado, horneado, con canela... Really anyway you can come up with to cook it, I will eat it!

5. Nestea, Cachapas (sweet cornmeal pancakes that are served with cheese), Arepas

6. My church. I really love the church that I have been attending this year, Emmanuel Baptist. I love the worship music and I love the pastor and his teachings. I love that it isn't like being in an American church in Venezuela, but that it truly is Venezuelan while at the same time familiar.

Things I am eager to see/use/eat/experience being back in the US for a bit:

1. Hot water! I am especially excited about hot showers. I hereby apologize to Mother Nature right now, because I know I will very likely over-enjoy my first few hot showers. Thankfully it is warm in Caracas, but the water can still be pretty cold sometimes. I've definitely taken my share of teapot-to-bucket baths!

2. Coffee! I know there must be good coffee in Venezuela. I know they produce it. I think you have to go to expensive specialty stores though. Either that or they export it all. The coffee that you can buy in the grocery store is definitely lacking in taste... So I am dying for good coffee! I also miss the coffee shop atmosphere that is so important in the NW.  I want to take my book somewhere and not get asked every five minutes if I want another juice or if I am ready for the bill.

3. While living close to the equator has its ups in terms of warmer weather all year round (see number 3, things I will miss), it definitely has its down side in that it gets dark every night of the year between 6:00 and 6:30 pm. I am eager to go for evening walks, actually to do anything that can be done outside in the evening!

4. Funny as this sounds, I'm looking forward to being noticed as tan and darker, more mediterranean looking than many in Washington. All of my life people have always commented on that, or asked me where my family is from based on my more olive skin and crazy curly hair. In Venezuela, I am white and gringa, punto. According to one of my roommates, I am the whitest person she's ever seen! Obviously she's not met many gringos before, because I can definitely mention a few that are way whiter than I am! Let's also not mention the fact that unless she's just been to the beach, my skin is actually darker than hers. She just happens to have the dark hair and dark eyes that somehow make her less white than me.

5. Somehow this point still works even though it kind of contradicts the previous one. I'm looking forward to not standing out for a while. While I don't necessarily stand out as much as I supposed I could, my blue eyes are still constantly noticed and constantly commented on. I really am perfectly content to not be reminded that my eyes are blue every time I pass some guy on the street... I am very aware of that fact!

I know I have more to add to this list, but for the time being these are the things that come to my mind. Enjoy!

A visit to my "office"

Here are a few shots from around our campus, where I spend a good deal of my time. This central area of campus is a great area to hangout, study or meet new friends. Sometimes this part of campus feels like a big park in the middle of the city. When it is clear you can see the mountains in the distance too.

There are all sorts of interesting sculptures, architecture, and tiled mosaic walls around campus. I am constantly discovering new pieces of interest.

I have a blog...

I´m so out of practice with this whole blog thing... I actually had kind of forgotten that it existed for awhile! Let´s see if I can get back into action here!

Christmas Cookie Party

To celebrate Christmas we invited all of the girl students and volunteers that we know in Caracas. We ended up with a small turnout, with just Claudia and I, our roommate Sol, and my disciples Ruth and Nohemí. We had quite a bit of fun though, despite the turnout.

We decided to make sugar cookies and decorate them. It took a bit of creativity for certain ingredients and utensils, but they turned out quite tasty.

Finding Christmas cookie cutters turned out to be quite a challenge as well. Claudia, Ruth and Nohemí went out for what we thought would be 10 or 15 minutes looking for cookie cutters, and came back more than an hour later! They walked all over the place to all sorts of different stores, trying to explain what they were looking for (cookie cutters are obviously not common in Venezuela!).

The girls did finally make it home successfully with cookie cutters though.

We had a lot of fun decorating! Lots of sugary frosting and sprinkles involved...

Some of the final products.

Our roommate Sol enjoying a sugary Christmas tree.

I made hot apple cider. This was a new taste for the Venezuelan girls. I told them this is what Christmas smells like to me... they told me Christmas smells like hallacas to them. Hallacas are a traditional Venezuelan food fairly similar to a Tamale. They take a banana leaf and spread a cornmeal dough on it, fill it with a cooked meat or veggie sauce, and fold them up. Then when they are ready to eat them, they just boil them to heat them up, and open up the banana leaf for a delicious Christmasy meal. I am definitely a fan!

Merry Christmas from the Vida Estudiantil girls in Caracas!

White Christmas?!

Being snowed in at my house was last on my list of expectations for the holidays this year, seeing how I was planning to spend it in sunny Venezuela! 

Yes, I'm in Auburn for the time being! I hurt my wrist a couple months ago and I'm home to get some treatment, with the added bonus of being able to spend Christmas with my family. It has been quite the whirlwind. The decision to come home happened on Sunday evening, as of Monday evening I had a plane ticket, and by Wednesday morning I was on an airplane!

So here I am, looking out the window at the snow, still a little in shock. God willing I will be back in Venezuela by mid-January to start of the new semester. Your prayers are appreciated for the doctors' wisdom and the healing of my wrist, and the timing to get back to my job and passion in Venezuela.

Perro Caliente

Venezuelan hot dogs (perros calientes) are quite an experience...They start with a bun and an incredibly tiny hot dog. Then you add onion, french fries, sometimes things like tomato, cheese, ham, corn... there are so many possibilities! What really makes the hot dog though is the approximate gallon of mayonnaise and ketchup required!

Mmmmm..... QUE RICO!!!!!

Cultural blunders 101: (from last year in Mérida)

One of the funniest moments of our Stint year in Mérida, Venezuela happened shortly after our arrival in country. The adventure came about when we decided to change things up a bit and throw some fish into our diet, which mostly consisted of chicken and ground beef. So two of our team members who didn’t speak all that much Spanish headed to the supermarket to buy some fish filets.

When the fish began putting off an odd smell from the oven we started questioning what type of fish we were about to experience. The arrival of a student supposedly schooled in cooking fish calmed our worries and we once again happily awaited our fishy supper. Upon approval by the student we sat down for what we hoped would be a tasty and different meal. It was different all right. The student and our team leader were the first to bravely try the fish. They seemed to like it and kept eating. After a moment however the student piped up that his tongue was numb, and our team leader that his throat was feeling funny as well.

Finally, after examining his serving of fish more thoroughly the student came to a brilliant conclusion. We weren’t eating fish, we were eating Sting Ray! Not only were we attempting to eat Sting Ray, we were attempting to eat undercooked Sting Ray (which by the way, is not a recommended recipe). Thankfully we had enough other parts of the meal and leftovers to leave the whole team more or less satisfied. However, the horribly odd smell did not leave our apartment for several weeks!

For the Malagueños

This is just a little note for the malagueños... (For those who don´t know, those would be the folks who live in Málaga, Spain where I studied and lived for a year and a half).

I live in Caracas.

Ok. Right. Got it.

I live in Málaga! Say what?

I´m serious.

But how could I possibly live in two places at once?

Well, in a building called Málaga of course, as it should be.

You can imagine my surprise of course when I stepped out of the taxi on the first day and realized where I will be living...

UCV: Central University of Venezuela

My team! From left to right: Claudia, Me, Dan and Ninive. There are lots of cool tile walls and weird sculptures around campus.

Exhibit A: cool sculpture... Also, there are a lot of trees all over campus. Parts of it feel like you're in a park! It helps me to not feel so much that I am stuck in a big city.

Our Caracas team and our National Director walking around campus.

For the time being our team has decided to focus on one university, and more specifically on one campus. We already have a few contacts at UCV, the Central University of Venezuela and it is the most "central" university. We have two student contacts in the school of Architecture, who are already getting their friends interested, and we've done a few activities there in the past, so we decided to make that our Target Area. Later on, once we have a group established we will be able to branch out into other schools at UCV, and eventually to other universities!

Rosemary French Bread

For those who haven't read my previous note, I made homemade bread for the first time a few weeks ago. It was a basic French Bread recipe, but I sprinkled in fresh rosemary before I formed the loaf. 

Final product... AMAZING

Plane Ticket

Today is the day! After several months of waiting and wondering what my actually departure date to return to Venezuela would be, I finally have a plane ticket (and therefore, a departure date)!

I will be leaving on Friday Septmber 12th, bright and early in the morning. Yay!

So, please pray with me that the last 15% of my support will come in before I leave!

Rosemary French Bread

Today is an exciting and important day for your Sagely One.... drumroll please!

Today I am making bread, for the very first time. I've made practically every other type of pastry or baked item imaginable. (Okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating... but I do have quite a bit of experience with baked goods.) I've wanted to make bread for a long time.

So, today since it was only a measly 100 degrees outside (and in), we decided that it'd be a good day for baking. Yeah, sounds just as crazy as when we came up with the idea.

But, sitting atop the oven rising, is my masterpiece! Rosemary French Bread! I have no idea what the final product will be, but so far so good.

84%

I currently am at 84% of my financial support needed to return to Venezuela. We are praying that I will be able to return to Caracas around September 10th.

I'm spending Labor Day weekend with my brother and his wife in northern California (Grass Valley, Nevada City area to be exact). I am really excited to be able to spend time with family, for the heat (although it may be a bit much), and to spend a few days having what might be referred to as, VACATION, before I head out (though I will be working on support while I'm here as well).

I guess for now I don't have much more to share... It is hot! I went to school with my brother and sister-in-law who are high school teachers at a very creative Charter school. It is neat to see them in their normal world. My brother is a real live adult! He has a wife, house, job... he even has a dog!

Please pray that God would work quickly to bring in the rest of the finances that I need. I'm eager to get back to Venezuela, and definitely want to arrive before classes begin. If you would like to help financially in some way please visit this page: https://give.ccci.org/give/0598804 . All gifts are tax-deductible.