Christmas Piggies

This season I've noticed that there are plastic piggybanks in every store, corner, or really by anyone in a job related to serving a customer:

Photo by Ciro Duran

People are essentially asking for donations, or bonuses, mainly for Christmas and New Years festivities (aka partying and getting drunk). The piggy bank thing is a long standing tradition, but I feel it has become more prominent in recent years. It used to be by the side and some (not all) stores had it, but now everyone has one, and people go out of the way to ask for a donation. Even the guy who takes your parking stub as you exit a shopping center (because the machine that takes the ticket doesn't work or people don't know how to use it) asks you to give them some spare change for the piggy. Keep in mind that this is has nothing to do with their employer, but more for a personal benefit.

Some say that the "revolutionary" government has basically broken people into expecting that someone else will take care of them or that begging for money without doing anything productive is a fine thing to do. Sadly for most people here working a bit hard never seemed to be a thing, anyway, though in a way you can't blame people for not getting paid well. It's unfortunately that the money is all wasted for two parties instead of being saved up and invested in more necessary things, though!

Stopped by a Bored Cop

An example of how bad the lack of communication is over here, and how people in government positions abuse of their power:

While driving around with my sister, Maribel, we ran into some portion of a main road where the cops set up some cones and were slowing people down. Maribel slowed down as soon as we saw it, but the cop ahead her made a hand gesture to slow down more. Maribel responded and kept slowing down. We were going at less than 5 Kilometers per hour and the cop kept doing the hand gesture as we passed her, and she knocked on the window and said to stop on the side of the road. It turns out that she was somehow trying to tells us to stop and didn't know how to do the right gesture.

On the side of the road, my sister apologized for not getting what the cop meant stop instead of slow down. Then the cop started whining about how she and the other cops set up those cones at 6:00 this morning for our safety and blah blah blah blah. Maribel tried to reason with the bitchy cop, but it was like dealing with an idiot child in uniform. Then she went away and another cop came to take our license and registration. He let us go, immediately

I don't get it. Maribel explains that nobody really knows the true reason why they'd set this up and stop vehicles at random but they're doing it to see if drivers are missing their papers and either ticket them or ask for a bribe (bribes are more common). Of course, cops never explain anything; they just follow orders and have no people skills.

On the first day of Christmas...

Venezuela being a predominately catholic country celebrates Christmas a lot. But hey, don't let religion get in the way because it's mostly an excuse to party hardy. Here's my week leading up and beyond Christmas:

• Monday December 21: Celebrated the first official day of winter by having this sort of thing called "the spirit of christmas" eve, which is this sort of European tradition that has been adopted by families here to make wishes for the coming year.... also adapted in Venezuela as an excuse to have a social event and drink scotch. Went to bed at 3:00 AM
• Tuesday December 22: My cousin (Alberto) is in town and he wants to go to the beach! Yay! Finally I get to go! On the way we get some Rum and the rest is history. Went to sleep at a reasonable time, but then the Pepsi's caffeine kicks in in the middle of the night.
• Wednesday December 23: Finishing buying gifts and my cousin (Ariana) was also having her 21st birthday. While 18 is the equivalent to a 21 year old in the U.S., the party ends up turning 'merican after someone brings out tequila and starts giving everyone shots. Went home at 5:30 AM. Didn't drive.
• Thursday December 24: Had to wake up semi-early to go to my grandma's house and celebrate her birthday and Christmas eve (which is what's celebrated here as opposed to Christmas day). She lives a couple of hours away. Went to sleep at a reasonable time, but it's really hot and humid where she lives.
• Friday December 25: Went to visit my dad's uncle, and ate a lot, to the point I was having Thanskgiving, followed by drinking more scotch with the old folks.
• Saturday December 26: Return to Puerto La Cruz to join my dad's cousins to a speedboat trip to one of the islands. Another beach day yay... mostly drinking wine and eating cheeses. Good times.
• Sunday (tomorrow as of the writing of this post): Beach... maybe? We had plans for it. Haven't figured out if we're going.

Red Light Entertainment

When there's a red light in one of the major avenues of Puerto La Cruz, you might see street vendors come out and sell all sorts of random things from colanders to pirated movies, and others are entertainers who do tricks for money right in front of traffic. Tonight, I saw the most bizarre thing:

A guy standing in front of of traffic juggling sticks lit on fire!

It seemed pretty normal to my aunt and sister, who didn't really say anything about it.

I wonder if these kinds of things only happen here, or there are similar sorts of crazy entertainment happening in other red lights in other countries. Feel free to leave a comment if you've encountered such a crazy event.

Beaching Issues

My parents live within walking distance from the beach. It'd probably take me at most 30 minutes walking from our house to get there, and I've been considering doing that but:

1. I can't swim in those beaches because they are quite polluted. So I'd have to walk there to get some sun, hang out, and walk back, and shower at home.
2. My old friends are busy, not in town, or have left town forever. How long could I last without swimming?
3. It could be very, very dangerous. I don't know what areas are safe to walk through. I'm still dazed and confused, and I'd be walking around by myself with no cell phone. And there's seriously high crime awareness in this area.

That feeling of danger is very prominent. It's a really lousy thing that if you've made any money you practically have to protect all your valuables (camera, smart phone) and not take them out in public. Here you really feel like you can't trust anyone, not even the police. You look around and every residence has walls 8 feet high topped with an electric fence and bars on every window, and nobody walks anywhere for fun. You see very few people on a bicycle, even if the streets are flat (in other words, perfect for riding a bike!). I'm trapped in my own home.

I'll wait until the weekend until more people are free to go to a swimmable beach and have some fun all day. In the meantime, I'll stick to the swimming pool crashing at my aunt's house.

Jet Lagging?

Although Venezuela is only half an hour later than eastern time (without daylight savings), I'm suprisngly having some jet lag issues. Because Venezuela is closer to the equator, the sun rises and sets very differently from the Pennsylvannia fall, so I wake up at the wrong time and am constantly unaware of what time it is. I suppose it doesn't help that I don't have a watch and my roaming cell phone stays at home.

The sun here rises around 6:00 AM, but it rises quite bright, so at 6 my eyes are fully open thinking it feels more like it's 10 AM for me but I feel super tired and try to go back to sleep, completely breaking my sleeping pattern. Sunset happens exactly at 5:30 PM, which is a just a little later than what I'm used to this time of the year, and the sunsets here also seem to happen much faster, too.

These little changes have really messed up with my eating and sleeping schedule. I think I'm getting used to it, though. That is, getting used to feeling totally confused all day long.