My first fútbol game

While baseball is still considered the national sport of Venezuela, soccer has been gaining popularity. I've never been to a real soccer game, so I took advantage of the opportunity to see the Venezuela's under-20 team play Colombia this week. It was a close game, but in the end, Venezuela moved on to the next round of the tournament.

Fishing Weekend

This past weekend we went on a fishing trip where we camped out on a farm and fished on Rio Tigre. It was nice to do something different and spend time outdoors.

The river, from our campsite


The boys and the big catch of the day


Well, I'd never seen a tent do this before....

back to school

Well, classes have started back I've been quickly reminded of how much of a handful the first graders are. While it can be difficult at times to get 21 kids to listen and cooperate, it has been a lot of fun to get to know the personalities of each of these kids.
This is a picture for a rare day when not only all the kids got to play a game, but the director of the school was able to join in as well.

More pics from around the school...

coming home

I was fortunate enough to make it home for the holidays and spend time with the family. While I've stepped way out of my comfort zone in my travels, it's always nice to feel at home. I ate some of my favorite foods, caught up with friends, and just enjoyed being able to take some vacation time. I returned to bitter cold weather and even saw snowfall on a couple of occasions - quite a contrast to the 80 degree tropical weather that I have become accustomed to.
One of these days the travel will be smooth... on the way to Cincinnati, I was on 4 separate flights in less than a day - Maturin to Caracas, Caracas to Altanta, Atlanta to Lexington (diverted after a delay getting into Atlanta), and finally, Lexington to Cincinnati.
On the return to my "second home", I managed to not miss any flights, but had to rush through the airport to avoid that, again, after a delay getting into Atlanta! I made it to Caracas around 11:00 that night, stayed the night, went to a mall and saw a movie, and took a very uncomfortable overnight bus ride to Maturin. Since then, I've been catching up on rest, unpacking and preparing myself for school, which starts back on Wednesday.

Thanksgiving.... from a new perspective

While I was very bummed about not being able to spend the traditional Turkey Day with the Harty/Bach family, I was very lucky to be welcomed to the celebration of one of Cesar's family friends that I've gotten to know over the last 4 months. This family adopted the Thanksgiving tradition when they lived in the US for a few years, so we gathered around the table, ate some delicious food, and shared what we are thankful for. To make it feel a little more like the Thanksgiving I know, I did my best to make a sweet potato casserole, but considering I had to substitute two of the most important ingredients of the dish - sweet potatoes and brown sugar - it just didn't turn out to be what I expected. Surprisingly enough though, people still liked it. I had to use batatas (which are grayish white) instead of the orange sweet potatoes we know, and instead of brown sugar, something called 'refined sugar with honey'... so I came away from this with a new recipe. It was strange however, to celebrate such a US holiday in such a non-US setting. Between all the Spanish, the new people, and the lack of real sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, cranberry bread, and all the other favorites, it just wasn't the same without the family. In the end though, I'm grateful that I was still able to celebrate the holiday and see it from a different perspective.

since it's been a while....

So, I realize it's been a while since my last post so there's lots to write about. Since the last time I've written, we've been to a few birthday parties and a wedding, and done a little traveling. It was fun to see how weddings are celebrated here, and found lots of similarities to the weddings I've been to in the US. The ceremony was held in the cathedral in downtown Maturin, and the reception was at a nearby hotel.


















Last weekend, Cesar and I took a short trip to Puerto Ordaz to have lunch with his grandparents and visit La Llovizna National Park. It was really interesting to see such a growing, industrial city right next to a little piece of tropical rain forest. Unfortunately it was a little rainy the day we went, but that meant we pretty much had the park to ourselves. I got to see some wildlife, including a couple of poison dart frogs.














There is a river that runs through the park, and just before the park, a dam that produces power that's even sold to other countries. While we were there, the door of the dam were shut, so you can just imagine what the waterfall is like when the doors are open.













Other than that, work has been going well and I now have an exciting opportunity to start an after-school program for the students whose parents work at the school. I will spend the next week planning activities and start the first week in December providing an extra hour and a half of supervision three days a week. I look forward to the chance to work independently and provide structure for the kids - a couple of them are in first grade and they could really use some extra attention. All the teachers that interact with the first grade comment on how difficult of a group it is to work with, and we've really worked the whole school year to try and get a functioning classroom where the kids can learn. It's been quite an experience, and I am somewhat relieved to hear that not all groups are so hard to work with.
In other news, elections are this weekend, so it should be interesting to see what changes take place, and how people react to those changes.
Well, more updates to come soon.
(more pics can be found on Cesar's facebook)

So here are a few pics I've been meaning to put up for a while. The avocados, as you can see, are much bigger than the ones we get in Cincinnati. And the other pics are from Cesar's garden - he is growing sunflowers, sweet peppers, watermelon and basil.

















Avocado....















Sunflowers...














and Basil.