31/10/2011 - 6/11/2011 - Into the routine

The week flew by in a blur of playing, teaching, learning spanish, cooking and cleaning. Having gotten bored of running around the farm for exercise, I've started venturing into the woods and found some great paths which definitely beat the treadmill at the gym.

fancy a jog?

 On friday night we went for pizza at a deserted restaurant in town. Having taken our order, the owner then proceeded to have an unrequested 20 minute rant about the state of Venezuela under Chavez. On reflection, it isn't surprising that he hates Chavez's socialist agenda since he, as someone who has quite a bit of money, is exactly the kind of person Chavez is directing his anti-bourgeois rhetoric against. He mentioned that even his assets weren't safe since the government reclaimed and redistributed land and property at will. I tried to ask him why he still stayed in Venezuela if he hated it so much but he brushed this off with  “its where my roots are” etc. It's difficult to debate with people who complain about things they have no control over. Although occasionally interesting, this man's tirade about corruption, Venezuelan mafia, badly trained Cuban doctors in Santa Elena and the things this man wished to do to the president fell into that category. Fortunately the pizzas were delicious.

On saturday, we went for a drive into the Gran Sabana, stopping en route to take in some great views and ending up at a nice little waterfall and diving pool. There was a group of indigenous folk swigging whisky there who, after I'd managed to produce a few competent phrases in Spanish, even offered me some. Finally the Spanish is paying off. Richard used to run one of the tour agencies in Santa Elena so he knows the surrounding area really well and seems to have friends in every small village we stop at. The scenery is an interesting mixture of sprawling grasslands punctuated by clumps of palm trees with the imposing Roraima table-mountain always looming in the background.

In the evening, having discovered a guitar at the foundation, I tried to help love-sick Richard through the medium of song. Despite my tuneful and insightful advice I feel little progress was made.

On sunday morning we went along to the inauguration of the new chief of Mana-Kru (the indigenous community) who had been elected last week. After speeches from people of importance and the ceremony itself, certificates were handed out to many people in recognition of their work within the community. At the end, the youth orchestra from the local music school played some lively pieces and there was a real sense of unity about the whole thing.

Considering that the foundation has been going for around 8 years, it is surprising that the work we do currently doesn't have much recognition in Mana-Kru. Richard mentioned that some members of the indigenous community are somewhat negative towards the foundation, partly because some of them don't agree with the rationale, or see the point, of teaching the children English. Also, some children, especially girls, get drafted early on into helping with household chores and staying at home to look after younger siblings and so can't take part in the activities we organise. However, after we talked to him, the new chief seemed relatively enthusiastic about trying to change the attitude of the community towards the work we do, which will hopefully be a good thing. That said, I am fairly realistic in my expectation of what we can and can't achieve here as European outsiders, but that's not a reason not to try and do as much as we can.

Sunday afternoon also saw the arrival of Barry, an architect in his forties from London, who's going to be volunteering at the foundation for 10 weeks. He's a really nice guy and has done a lot of travelling, some of it in south america, so I'm looking forward to picking his brain for recommendations of where I should explore in my travelling months.