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.