First Thoughts

Well, I have made it through my first four days in Venezuela! Our orientation in San Francisco was really great. There are a total of eight summerxchange interns in four places: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, and Caracas, Venezuela. I am one of two interns here in Caracas for the summer. Gabriel, the other intern, is originally from Peru but has spent a lot of time in Quito, so we've had some fun times talking about the places we both know in Ecuador!

One thing I have begun to enjoy with InnerCHANGE is their sense of Christian ecumenism. Every week all the teams across the world meet on the same day to pray, and they follow a very Catholic style of prayer even as they are not a Catholic organization. I have heard other Protestant or evangelical groups talk about how they appreciate things about the Catholic church, but I haven't witnessed any others that express such a seamless blending of many traditions. It's very encouraging, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of how that works.

Here in Caracas I'm living with two other women about my age who are a part of the InnerCHANGE team here. KT has been here for almost two years, and Beth just arrived a couple of months ago. They have been wonderfully gracious and patient hostesses, and I feel so blessed to have them here to help guide me and walk with me through this experience. We live in a little two bedroom apartment that has a little bathroom and tiny kitchen. They've decorated in a way that feels warm and comfortable. In order to get to the apartment we have to descend a number of treacherous stairs. No two stairs are alike here, so you definitely have to watch where you're going! There are some windows, without glass, so we benefit from the really nice breeze that always seems to be blowing through. All the houses look so precarious from the outside, but once you're inside it actually feels pretty secure. Most people here build their houses a little at a time, as they can afford it, so that contributes to the mish-mash appearance of it all.

Speaking Spanish has been incredibly useful to me, of course, but Venezuelan Spanish does have plenty of unique characteristics. I understand about 75% of what people say, but it's amazing how not understanding one or two words can completely throw you off!

One of the most surprising things I've observed so far is that life in Caracas is actually quite comparable to Orange County in some ways. There is a huge discrepancy of wealth and poverty, but even in the barrio where I'm living I'm not sure that it's all that different than some of the neighborhoods in Santa Ana where I work. Everyone here has running water and electricity (though there's no hot water - my mother would be proud of how much less time I spend in the shower!) and if you don't have food you can get it from the government. What is also interesting is that you don't really see homeless or begging people, which I expected based off of my previous overseas experience. Venezuela, as it turns out, is not really a poor country. It just has people who are poor. It is believed that almost half of the people of Caracas live in the barrior. Because the government provides so much assistance, you don' t really see complete destitution. Certainly we do deal with some of the inconveniences you might expect, such as not being able to flush toilet paper, having to wash fresh fruits or vegetables in vinegar, and not being able to drink the water.

Another crazy thing about the barrios here is that they are all high on the hills, so you have the most amazing views of the city. In the U.S. that's prime real estate, but here it's what's set aside for the poor. It's also interesting how at home I can look at photos of barrios and feel a sense of sadness for the people who live there, but when looking across at those same images from within a barrio, it just looks normal and I know that people are living there just like I am in this neighborhood.

I've already had my first bout with diarrhea, but the charcoal pills my doctor recommended seem to have helped a little. Getting sick is a fact of life here, which is stragely comforting. I'm certainly not alone in that experience!

I'm definitely still in kind of robot mode, just going along with everything. My mind is always trying to analyze every situation and make sense of it all, but each day brings something new to consider. With all that I've seen in the last four days, I can't imagine what the coming week will bring!