Today's Lunch

I stepped back a bit from this project as I began to feel that I was comparing and complaining. Rather than focus on being worse off here than in Medellin, I would like to try to communicate some sense of what it's like, living in these dark days of Maracaibo and Venezuela. It's really hard for anyone not here, or who has not gone through the collapse of a country, society, economy..... to comprehend. We complain...things are indeed far from what they once were...but life goes on.

Things are not perfect in Medellin, and they are probably not as completely grim here as many outsiders might imagine.

In Medellin the supermarkets are full of choices. I had a hard time finding apple cider vinegar and kosher salt to make pickles. However, I did find pickling cucumbers, which they refer to as European cucumbers. Never have seen those here, even back in the good old days.

Here in Maracaibo we are not yet starving. Our choices and menus, however, are dictated by daily availability and shopping victories, and what we will eat has become a major preoccupation and topic of conversation.  Take today's lunch...and by lunch in Maracaibo I refer to the main cooked meal of the day. In days fondly remembered, lunch consisted of rice, plantains, beans, a veggie or salad, and some sort of meat, chicken or pork. I was lucky last night and scored a piece of decent looking meat at a decent price...not a cut you would recognize, and the description on the label was no help, but in good Venezuelan fashion I made shredded beef (carne mechada), and it came out just fine. Sliced onions and garlic into the bottom of a heavy pan, placed the mystery meat on top, seasoned it with spices, salt and pepper, added liquid to the pan, put the top on, and after a couple of hours over very low heat it was ready to fall apart into fine shreds which I mixed back into the remaining juices in the pan. Delicious, and it's been a while since we've had beef that wasn't ground, so a good start.

Normal, what used to be nationally produced, rice is not available these days. But I do have imported Arborio rice from Italy. Of course, I do. Imported products at dollarized prices are not that hard to find. So, we had risotto. I used green onions instead of white, because they were near the edge of usability and we do not waste anything anymore. Had an open bottle of white wine, mushrooms....and turkey broth. Yes, turkey. For some reason, for some time, while chicken has diappeared, the stores are full of turkey legs and wings. Don't ask me who is getting the rest of the bird, because it is only packs of legs and wings that are available. The legs are the size of small chickens (and any chicken you might find around her these days is small). You can see people run up to the meat counter thinking it is chicken, only to find large turkey legs.  Three or four of us often lunch from one roasted leg. Then I save the bones to make broth. It works. Venezuelans who never much liked turkey before are learning to eat it. At first I would see women looking perplexed at the packages of turkey legs and wings, or turning up there noses. Now they scoop up as many as they can.

Anyway...carne mechada, mushroom risotto, and...well, we each had our choice of sides. Some cole slaw from the fridge, a bit of homemade tabbouleh left from Sunday night, and an almost too ripe avocado, made into avocado-tomato salad. Waste not, want not. Nothing gets thrown out.

Not a combination we would have ever planned in days gone by, but far from starvation rations. I know, we are still among the fortunate few in Venezuela.  We buy the imported rice, and wine, mushrooms and avocados are not yet beyond our food budget. As a friend commented last night, we now pay those who work at the house more in food (breakfast, lunch) than in Bs. They benefit, but have even less choice over what they will eat than we do. We are eating rare combination, while they are truly acquiring new tastes.  It's a constant mindset of... what can I find today, what will we have for lunch, dinner....not to worry, there's always that freezer full of turkey legs.

Headlines

I've been trying to slip back into some kind of routine here. But the headlines just keep rocking me back. How much is too much? Why is nobody stopping this?

Last night...

[En San Felipe] Encapuchados atracaron autobús con 50 niños de plan vacacional

Eight masked (hooded) men attacked a bus carrying 50 children from a vacation outing sponsored by the Lara State government. They stopped the bus, pointed guns at the children, beat them and stole everything in sight, including their backpacks.

Who does this? These children were obviously unarmed and not carrying anything very valuable. ?!?

Asesinan a abuela del empresario Nelson Belfort

The 93 year-old grandmother of the president of a Venezuelan radio circuit was beaten in her home by presumed robbers. Her neck was broken. 

Who does this? Who has to beat a 93 year-old woman to steal what little she might have in her apartment??!?

Gilberto Correa recibió golpiza en medio de un asalto

It was reported yesterday. although the attack occurred earlier, that a well-known TV personality, now 72 years old, was attacked and beaten in his car as he drove home. The attackers recognized him and commented "let's leave him or the same thing will happen to us as with Monica Spears"...with all that, he required 14 stitches in his face. (Monica Spears was a Venezuelan beauty queen who was murdered on the road with her husband. There was a national outcry, and the police were forced to hunt down those responsible. But ordinary people are attacked and killed daily with no outcry and no arrests.)

(12/08/2015) SAQUEADO CAMIÓN DE JABÓN,SAN CARLOS, COJEDES!!!

A truck transporting soap was pillaged and plundered by the good citizens of Cojedes State. (This is only today's looted truck. Drivers are afraid to carry cargos of price-controlled goods.)

The entire society is falling apart. The great majority seems to have no sense of right and wrong...if I want it, if I need it, then it's OK to take it any way I can. (As violently as possible, apparently)  I'm owed. This is one of Chavismos most devastating legacies. One which will take a generation or two to overcome.

OK. I'm done for today. Just had to get out from under the weight of all the bad headlines.

Leavng Medellin

We spent the day...over 12 hours travelling home to Maracaibo.

Our flight was scheduled to leave Medellin at 8:30am and arrive in Maracaibo one hour later, with the time change that would be around 10:00am. Of course it didn't happen that way.

We got up and going at 4:30am to get ready and make the drive out of town to the airport. It was a nice drive along mountain roads, with little traffic at that hour. 13 degrees C at 5:30.  We arrived at the airport by 6:00 to find that check-in would not begin until 6:30, so we had time for a cafe con leche and some chicken pastries.

Everything was going just fine until we got to the check-in counter for Venezolana, the Venezuelan airline we were travelling on. The line was slow, to the point of being stopped. We waited, moved a foot or two, then waited again. The line for the airline next to us kept moving. Passengers arrived and were checked in. It took us over and hour to make it to the counter. We had to speak to at least three different people, at three different counters....one charged us the airport tax which was not included in our tickets. The next took our luggage, weighed it and gave us our baggage tags. The third actually checked us in to the flight (after our baggage was checked) and gave us our boarding passes and copies of the three separate forms one has to fill out to enter Venezuela...customs, immigration, health.  I had to explain to each of them that I was not a tourist, that I lived in Venezula, and that there was a resident visa in my passport. OK, painfully slow, but I'm pretty much used to slow by now.

We exited through Colombian immigration with no problems, and the security procedure was painless.

We stopped for a quick chocolate purchase at one of the shops near the gates, then when we got to our gate there was an airline employee there who told us that the plane hadn't arrived yet and that we should have a seat. Fortunately the airport has ample seating and a clean, pleasant area where we can

wait (with air conditioning :)). Supposedly the plane would arrive in around 15 minutes. At 9:00 they announced that the plane had arrived and that we would leave at 10:30.  Most people were sleeping on the chairs in the waiting area by now, unperturbed by the unsurprising lateness. At 9:45 we were informed that the plane had technical issues and that another would arrive at 10:30 so that we could leave at 11:30.  At around 11:00 it was announced that those "interested" in flight 603 should go to the gate assigned. We were no longer passengers. At the gate they checked our boarding passes and gave us each a ham and cheese sandwich and a soft drink. Not a good sign. A bit after 1:00pm they took the names of all those who had to make connecting flights which left before 6:00pm. Then finally at 1:30 they told us that our plane would arrive at 2:00 and we would leave at 3:00. By now we were a bit incredulous. When they brought us another soft drink and a fried empanada at 2:30 I was sure we  were in for another change of plans. But at 2:30 a plane pulled up to the gate and we started boarding just after 3:00...finally, by 3:25 we were taking off.  Perhaps the saddest thing about the whole affair was that no one was surprised. Everyone travelling to Venezuela seemed to know how things work there, and just waited for the latest version, grateful for the snacks, which we probably wouldn't have gotten had we been stuck in Maracaibo.

The airport in Maracaibo was just as we had left it...crowded and hot; in complete chaos because

passengers for more than one flight were checking in at the same time. No air conditioning, and the temperature here was 35 C.  The car that was coming to pick us up, and which had been on hold all day, receiving hourly changes in plans, was stuck in a traffic jam on the road to the airport. Construction has made the journey to and from the airport almost impossible for months now.  He finally picked us up close to 5:30 and we were home by 6:15pm....more than twelve hours after we started out, for a one hour flight.

Home. It will take a whole other post, or more, to try and explain how I can be happy to be home, feel good in my house, when everything is falling apart around us. But for now, I'm back and for a while, at least, I won't be leaving Venezuela.

We went to market...

There is no reason why I am comparing Medellin to Maracaibo other than that it was while visiting this city that I came into full consciousness of the fact that I now live in a full-blown third world country. I have loved living in Maracaibo, in Venezuela, for over 40 years, and have resisted the thought of leaving to the point of being one of the hard core holdouts who could leave if they wanted to but have chosen to stay. Things go down hill little by little and you adapt, little by little. Sometimes it takes a trip to step back and realize what's really happening.
I have spent time in the US over the past years, and, yes, the differences are enormous. But then, things have always been different in the US. Perhaps its because Medellin is a Latin American city, in neighboring Colombia, that used to be worse off than we were... or maybe it was the four hour wait in a hot Maracaibo airport for our flight out, that seemed more like being in a popular market than an airport, overcrowded, noisy, hot.....
Anyway, whatever the reason, this trip has left me pulling back, leaving Venezuela emotionally, even though I still live there.

Yesterday we went to a supermarket in Medellin...Exito, which used to be an option in Maracaibo. It was full. Not sure exactly why, at 10:30 on a Wednesday morning, but it seemed to be mostly people doing their weekly shopping, with carts full. We only had a handful of items. We got in line...a long line... with 3 full carts ahead of us. I noticed that at each cashier there were one or two plastic chairs, placed right in front of the magazine display, and they were being enjoyed by elderly customers. There were quite a few customers in their golden years. I've found that it is common here to see people in wheelchairs, with canes, or leaning on the arms of family members or caregivers, in shopping centers and malls. Not so much in Venezuela.
The woman ahead of us turned around, looked at the few things in my hands, and graciously insisted that we go ahead of her.  The store was crowded, but it was a totally normal and pleasant experience. We found everything we needed, and actually had options to choose from...

....and then there's the shopping experience in Venezuela.

OK. The picture is a bit of an exaggeration, but not by that much. Every day you see more and more stories about looting, and violence in the looooong lines that are commonplace in Venezuelan markets. The lines begin forming at dawn in some places. In the market where I usually shop that isn't the case (yet), but as soon as some of the hard to find, price-regulated items come out on the floor the crowd quickly increases. Everyone in the store begins to call or text friends and family to tell them what is available. The professional shoppers, bachaqueros, who resell at  300-400% the regulated prices (often in Colombia), begin to flood the place. The lines wind around the store, up and down the aisles, and it can easily take you hours to pay and leave with only a few of the things you wanted when you came into the store. There are no chairs for the older customers...in fact, you don't see too many elderly people in the supermarket. It's not safe. The people waiting in line eat some food before getting to the cashier, leaving the empty containers on the shelves...or floor. It's a general disaster and you never know when there might be a mini-riot (see above picture) or a squabble between customers that might turn a bit violent. If you are buying regulated products you have to register your fingerprint so that you can't buy anymore of the same for a week. Oh, yes, and you can forget about anyone kindly suggesting that you go ahead of them in line.  In general it's a totally degrading and unpleasant experience....and getting worse every day.
This isn't even the Maracaibo I lived in for so many years...it's an unfriendly new place that I really can't fathom.