Once again it proved useless to make plans in Venezuela. If there is no one else to fuck them up I'm quite capable of ruining them myself. On Friday it was my birthday and I was unable to celebrate it the way I had planned. The day of my birthday my cold got worse, I had a fever, and I decided not to go to work. By the way, it´s suprisingly hard to know how one is feeling in a foriegn country. For example, in Finland I would very easily be able to tell if I am sweating more than usually but here it is bloody hot all the time (especially with no airconditioning) so there is no way of telling whether I´m sweating more than usual or not. But the morning of my birhtday I felt a bit cold and weak and in the night I had started to cough. I remeber saying to my flatmate on the Monday before that I don´t feel too well and that perhaps I should stay at home. She said, if you can talk you can work - tough people, the Venezuelans. So, the morning of my b-day I was talking to myself, trying to check wether I have a voice or not. I had a voice but decided that this voice theory does not really apply to Finnish people and called work and said that I´m staying at home.

"I´m staying at home" was the phrase I kept repeating throughout the day over and over, when people called to congratualte and asked where we´d be having the party later in the evening. Well, what happened was that Kasia showed up at my place 6 p.m. with Chuy, a guy from Aiesec. And then Nancy came with a cake and then Cheché and then some more people and in the end there were enough people there to eat most of the huge cake that Nancy brought. Kasia brought a bottle of wine and we discussed the fact that here people drink wine cold instead of room temperature, cause it is so hot here. Actually it was the perfect way for me to celebrate my b-day. I could not have imagined anything better than to have my Aiesec family around me. Kasia was disappointed cause I didn't cry, like I did during the Aiesec seminar, but I promised to cry at the latest on the day we leave Venezuela.

I have to tell you about one super cute thing that happened to me at work. One student of mine, Ramón (12 years old), came to his class on Monday with a ridiculously big bouquet of flowers and a cake for me. The frosting on the cake was like a Finnish flag, white with a blue cross. Kasia was yelling in the next room "cry baby cry", and Ramón's mother was taking pictures. I loved my work that day.

My last entry was pretty useless, so I´ll try to write something more interesting today.

There is an indigenous population living here in Maracaibo - the Guajiros. (In the song about Cuantanamera they sing about Guajiro Cuantanamera). They have their own language and culture and live between Maracaibo and Colombia and in Colmobia. They are respected, or I've heard that it can turn ugly if you mess with the Guajiros, but they tend to be doing the low paid jobs around. Our cleaning lady, for example, is Guajiro. Their craftmaniship is highly valued, they make beautiful hammocks amongst other things, and I heard that they own land and are therefore somewhat powerful. However, the Guajiro area is the poorest in Venezuela, as far as I know. An interesting detail about the Guajiro culture is that it is the women who make the big decicions in the family, like whom the son/daughter is going to marry etc.

Maybe I'll attempt to address the higly sensitive topic of politics more thoroughly some day, but to all those unaware, there will be elections in December (13.12 I think). Basically there are two camps: those for and those against Chavez. I guess the biggest cadidate against Chavez is the governor of Zulia (Arturo Morales or something, I´m ashamed to admit that I don't know his name). Maracaibo is situated in Zulia so seems like Maracaibo might have a big role in the elections. People have said that this is the last chance to get Chavez out of power before he turn Venezuela into a communist country. Sofar no one I´ve heard has been indifferent to the topic and for sure emotions will be heated when december approaches.

Well, I better go and try to get some sleep. My landlord is redoing her bathroom so I´ll have to be prepared to the arrival of workers (and no running water) tomorrow morning. So I have to wake up early to shower and probably I´ll go straight to work instead of hanging arund the house and listen to the process off tiles being removed from the wall. In addition, as if I would not feel miserable enough with my cold, the airconditioning in my room decided to brake down. Well, I know that I´m not supposed to be sleeping with the airconditioning on but there are some nasty insects (small mosquitos) which didn't like the air condidtioning and are now settling in my room. I´ll never say that I hate airconditioning again.

Progress! I started with Spanish classes (which we get for free at Ruge) AND (finally!!) salsa classes. And now I have a cold. Actually it´s been a miracle that I haven´t fotten sick earlier considering the amount of sleep I´ve been having these past couple of weeks. Well, anyways I think I´m not sick enough to skip work. Actually I think that I got my cold from a student of mine. On Friday Valeria came to class very ill. She sat there the whole class shivering and I thought her parents must be punishing her for something cause I don´t see why anybody would send their child to class in that condition.

I´m trying to plan my B-day and at the same time be prepared for anything. I´ll let you know if anythig worth mentioning happens.What else... no time.

Last weekend we had an Aiesec seminar. It was for all new members who want to become full mebers. I wasn´t really aware of the agenda but I wanted to participate cause I felt it would be good for my integration process in Aiesec Venezuela.

We left on Friday evening at 8. We took a bus from Maracaibo to Caracas. We arrived in Caracas at ca 8 in the morning. It was nice to be in Caracas again, see familiar places and streets. Of course I hoped that I might bump into someone I know but in a city with 8 million inhabitants (0r something) the dds are not really high. The seminar took place in a monastery outside of Caracas. The site was really nice, peaceful and everything. I had my own room with shower and it felt pretty luxurious.

The theme of the seminar was leadership. There were discussions, presentations, and activites that dealt with topics ranging from time management to third world problems. Everything was in Spanish, which made life sometimes a bit difficult for me. On Sunday I decided to just concentrate on understanding and forget about participating. I begun to wonder if one of my problems in France/Disneyland was that I was to hard on myslef. This weekend was really tiring and at some point I decided to put minimum effort into everything. I spoke English even if I could have tried to speak Spanish etc. I was silent even if I could have made an effrot to participate. I felt pretty good about being able to cut myslef some slack without feeling bad about it.

On the whole the weekend was a bit extreme. For example the first night we had a meeting with Aiesec Maracaibo and the people were saying such nice things about me that I started to cry. Everybody was supposed to thank everybody and when it was my turn to thank the people who had helped me most I started to cry. To me it is just so incredible how the pople here have adopted me. I still can not understand it. And at the same time it is really frustratgin to try ot be social in surroundings where you don´t really understadn what pople are saying and you feel like you are not realy yourself. At least that is how I feel sometimes. I´m sure that if the seminar would have taken place in Finland or i an English speaking country I would have been much more active in the group activities. At least I like to think that way.

Well, I just had a conversation with Rocio. She called me to invite me to her graduation ceremony. Seems like I´m heading for another adventure. We have to meet early tomorrow morning so she can show me how to get to the place where th graduation is taking place. Why does everythig have to be so fucking complicated. I´m exhasuted and should be getting to bed. The last time I had a decent night sleep was probably like two weeks ago or somehting.

Well. Now I really feel like I am working, cause I am at Ruge Monday-Thursday from 8 in the morning to 8 in the evening. Fortunately I have some free hours between classes. Sofar I like being busy at work, cause my students are really nice and teaching could not be made easier or more pleasant. However, the downside is that I have to take taxis home in the evening, which naturally costs more than walking, since there are no buses. Also, because I can´t walk home it means that I'm moving even less than before, which means that I'll have to find another way to exercise. Already in Finland I remember thinking that I should learn yoga or some other sport (...if yoga can be called a sport) that I could do anywhere and which would require a minimum amount of equipment and space.

Last Friday I went to a salsa party. Sometime in the afternoon I got an SMS from Rocio saying: "Rumba hoy?" which menas something like, "wanna go out tonight?" and I replied: sure, but tomorrrow I work at 10 so I can´t stay out too late. Well, later in the evening Rocio called me and said that she´d like us to go to a salsa party organized by salsa casino, the place where she takes salsa classes (and where I was supposed to start classes like a month ago). Rocio thought that the party would take place in a bar (or club or somehting) where anybody could go, so it was a bit weird when our taxi stopped in front of a private home. Well, we weren't discouraged (or to tell you the truth, I was but Rocio wasn´t) so we rang the doorbell and someone came to answer. The guy was weraing normal clothes and Rocio asked him: is the salsa party taking place here? Yes, said the guy. We enter and realize that we're crashing a private birthday party. It was extremely embarrasing and awkward. I wanted to leave immediately, especially since I knew that some people were meeting at Pedro's for beers. But Rocio wanted to wait a bit in order to see whether any of her firends from salsa casino would show up.

I tried to make myself as invisible as possible, but the always friendly and not at all shy Maracuchos (=people from Maracaiobo) came to talk to me. And soon I was dancing salsa (or receiving a lesson of salsa) and having a blast. Rocio and I were amongst the last to leave, and I was at my house at 4.30 in the morning. Another night of success in Maracaibo.

And on Saturday one of my musicians was spinning records at an art fair. Cheche was kind enough to take all us trainees there. At the exibition we saw some arsty people, and I think they would be more or less like my sister´s crowd in Finland. So I felt kind of at home. Carlos played house and I kept repeating "THIS is the kind of music my sister and I look for in Finland when we want to go out to dance". What I really like about Venezuela is the diversity in the music you can find here. You have the traditional stuff like salsa, merenge, and vallenato, which you dance with a partner. Then you have the reggaeton, which you dance at parties and which is also kind of a social dance since nobudy dances reggaeton by themselves. But then you can also find good house, reggae and funk where you don't have to worry about what the other people on the dance floor are doing and you can really just do your own thing.

I´m slowly beginning to plan my birthday. Today my musicians complained to me that I don´t go out with them and promised to come and spin records at my birthday party (wherever it takes place). Carlos Enrique could spin house and John promised to play salsa. We´ll see what happens. It would be so extremely awesome.

I´ve been busy. Last weekend we had an Aiesec seminar here in Maracaibo and on top of that I went to a concert and to Pedro´s birthday party. So I guess Saturday was the busiest day.

My last entry was kind of depressed, I suppose, or not very positive to say the least. I complained about my poor Spanish etc. Well, last weekend I noticed how my Spanish has improved. We have Aiesec activities every Saturday and I understand more and more every weekend. This last weekend I was actually participating in the seminar, in Spanish, commenting etc. It was a pretty good feeling.

The concert I went to was one where two of my students, John and Carlos Enrique played. They had a gig already the weekend before the last but I was unable to go there (or it was simply too difficult to arrange) so I was determined to go this time. And my students insisted. The concert was for new bands, so I was prepared for anything. However, the concert was surprisingly good and I liked the astmosphere and the people I saw there a lot. You know this music scene where people dress a bit altrenative etc. When I saw John at the concert he said: Hey, Elina, now you can see people who wear shoes like you! In other words, the girls there, or many of them, were wearing trainers. I had been telling John and Carlos earlier that I feel a bit unfeminine walking around in my trainers and wearing whatever. So, back to the music, the bands were actually not bad at all. I did not hear all the bands, but the best guitarist in Maracaibo (or was is Venezuela, even) played there. My students played in the closing band (I am proud to announce) and they were naturally the best. I am really bad at describing music, but it was kind of reggae mixed with...I don´t know. It was not rock or jazz or anything like that. Kind of new style, very cool and relaxed. Jamming music. The name of their band is Skama Sweet Selection and they are releasing a recods sometime soon, hopefully next month.

It is pretty amazing, the kind of people I teach at Ruge. Another student of mine, a Colomiban guy, whom I think I´ve mentioned in passing in a previous entry, is actually related to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. How amazing is that! And he also plays in a band with his brothers. They have released five records of typical Colombian music called vaienato (spelling?).

What else...one day I heard a person speaking English in the bakery where I sometimes buy my lunch. I walked in and heard a loud voice speaking English and everybody was staring in his direction. I ordered my sandwich (or whatever) and kept an eye on the guy. He was trying to communicate (or communicating in a very basic way) with the shopkeeper, explaining something about his travels. Well, when I went to pay for my lunch the shopkeeper said, here is another English speaker (they know me at this bakery, it´s the one where the man knew Mika Häkkinen), you can talk with this guy.

guy: hey you speak English
me: yes, I´m an English teacher
guy: where are you from, Germany?
me: no, Finland
guy: where is that?
me: northern Europe
guy: so, do you have a Venezuelan boyfriend
me: yes I do
guy: are you in love?
me: love is a big word
guy: I don´t believe in love, can I have your phone number?
me: no, I´ll see you around.