December 3rd

life in venezuela is exciting. I have been able to travel around a little bit, not as much as I would like but it is hard to get around on the weekends for little trips. Public transportation is not the easiest. Believe it or not, the easiest and cheapest way to travel long distances is via taxi. I took a trip to Colombia with some teachers and a taxi to the border was only $50 total for 4 people. The border was 2 1/2 hours away. It amazed me that in the city of maracaibo, you have every little convience and it is as modern a city as Denver but in the frontier towns, you really have cities that are still set in the 1950's or earlier. I spent Thanksgiving in Aruba with my family and my girlfriend (yes believe it or not I have a girlfriend). Aruba was nice, such a beautiful area. But what struck me the most is how much the media coverage of the Natalie Holloway story not only affected the island but the people. They are very upset about how the US media covered the situation and felt that it was completely unreasonable. I have a student who was living in Aruba during the incident and he is friends with the Dutch teen accused of killing her. He said that everyone was treated with a great deal of respect, offered food, housing and transportation for the search. The island basically stopped to search for this girl. And he didnt think that the media ever showed this side of Aruba, nor to people think the girl is located on the island. Sorry if that was a weird bit of info, but i always find it interesting to see how people from other countries view the america media coverage of events and to see what they see compared to what we are told.

School is still very good. Not a whole lot to report on the school front. We had an interesting connection to the presidential elections that took place on Dec. 3rd. In Venezuela, elections take place on Sunday so that everyone can vote. The ministry of education shut down all schools starting on the wed. before the election and we did not reopen until the tuesday afterwards. There was talk that we might shut down for the entire month of december. All of these ideas were because of the fear of civil unrest and possible civil war surrrounding the election.

ok now it is time to bore people with details of politics. the presidential elections were unbelievable. The passion that Venezuelans have for politics and this elections was amazing. I went to a baseball game with some friends which I will say for the adults reading this email, is quite a site. You can order a bucket of beer that you keep with you during the game. and when i say a bucket of beer, i mean they bring a case of beer in a bucket with ice and cups for $25 dollars. Anyway during the game which was a good game the Maracaibo Aguiles won, there were people who supported chavez and others who supported his opponent Rosales. This great game is going on and they get into a chavez vs. rosales chant, it was amazing to hear a political chant during a sporting event. people were having fun with each other but you could def. tell how much they loved their candidate. I have never experienced anything like this chant. usually we have sports chants at political events. As for election day, I spent about 5 to6 hours walking and riding my bike around to as many polling places as I could locate. I will openly admit that I was embarrassed to be an American, this was the first time since I have been down here that I have felt that way. We are suppose to be the beacon of democracy and yet only approx. 33% of our citizens actually vote. I saw in just Maracaibo, lines that literally wrapped around entire city blocks for hours. the front and back of the lines overlapped. my girlfriend Janina stood in line for 6 hours to vote, she is not a Chavez fan. People brought out lawncares, sat around and talked to each other, had a huge reunion while waiting in line to vote. It was amazing. The day after the election was even more amazing, seeing the Chavez supporters driving through town in long caravans screaming, honking, waving flags. I took a bike ride into the poorer neighborhoods to see the celebration and it was amazing. It was a celebration party, these people truly look at Hugo Chavez as a savior and hero. I will not express my own personal opinions on this subject to avoid upsetting anyone. I am going to attach some pics of the election lines.