Halloween at the 10th Parallel

It took us several days, but we finally managed to get all the requisite Halloween activities done and documented for posterity.

Captain Caleb and his trusty pumpkin -- would you board a plane with him at the controls?
He's a giraffe, in case you were wondering.
All dressed up and ready to party. They were 2 of 7 trick-or-treaters who walked around our apartment complex. They received enough candy for a whole classroom of children.

Here are Caleb and Isaac resting after a very productive trick-or-treating episode around the various offices in the Embassy. There were 75 kids running up and down the halls and the boys were thrilled. No pictures from inside, of course, got to have proper clearances for that kind of access.
The pumpkins available in Caracas were $8/pound, so we made do with an auyama, a South American squash that sort of looks and tastes like a pumpkin.
Caleb wasn't interested in this part of the Halloween festivities, but Isaac happily dug right in.
Besides the psuedo-pumpkin, our only other decoration, a garland of bats, pumpkins and ghosts.
And, finally, for Family Night 2 days after Halloween, we decorated sugar cookies.
Isaac enjoying the fruits, or rather frosting, of his labor.
Look Mom, no hands!
Happy Halloween!

Security Bean Bag

I never had a "blankie" so I don't know firsthand the trauma of giving it up, but I have heard many stories from parents about the pain of breaking their child of their binkie, blankie, silky etc. So, when my kids were babies I made an extra effort to keep them from becoming too attached to anything. I wanted to avoid the crisis of losing the item or worse having to wrest said object from the clutches of my 5 year-old on the first day of kindergarten. I thought I had successfully achieved my goal until a couple of months ago.

With some leftover fabric and a rainy afternoon on my hands I decided to make some bean bags for the boys. They loved them and invented all sorts of ingenious uses for their new toys. After a few days I noticed that Isaac started devoting most of his bean bag time to the one made of purple silk (i.e. polyester). I didn't think anything of it and then suddenly overnight he couldn't go anywhere without it. All we heard all day long was "mi bolsa, mi bolsa," (my bag, my bag). How could this have happened, I wondered. Of course his attachment began roughly the same time I took away his bottles and our live-in maid went out of town for 3 weeks...but come on I thought, it's a square of fabric filled black beans, surely he's not that attached!! Yesterday I went to check on him during his afternoon nap and found this...

Cute, but not a good omen for the future. YIKES!

T.I.V. Tuesday

Here is proof that not everything in Venezuela is bad, backwards, irksome or irrational. Recently, we took a weekend trip to Tortuga Lodge. It is situated on the coast of Venezuela in the midst of a National Preserve. The area is reasonably remote and required a 15 minute motor boat ride through a mangrove forest to reach our destination. Our accommodations were on the rustic side (no power during the day, salt water showers etc.), but we were lulled to sleep at night by the sound of crashing waves, and it is hard to beat that. This was Isaac's first trip to the beach and he was in love. We spent much of the weekend trying to convince him that believing you can swim is not the same as actually possessing said skill. Caleb became adept at sneaking up on crabs and had his first lessons in body surfing. He asks daily when we're going back and sadly the answer is probably never. The Chavez government is in the process of expropriating Tortuga Lodge and in the very near future it will no longer be beautiful and inviting, like so many other things in this country that are now government controlled. But, we had an enjoyable weekend there and it will always be lovely place in our memories.

Keeping the Self-pity at Bay

My readers are aware that I do not love Venezuela. True, the country is beautiful and the weather is perfect (unless you dig seasons and changing leaves and snow) and we have a great apartment and some cool neighbors, but the government is abysmal and it is REALLY not safe here and there isn't much to do for the under 5 set.

When we discovered we were expecting a baby, I was thrilled. Not just because we wanted another child, but because that meant I was going to get a 3 month reprieve from Chavezland -- Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas in the US of A sounded too good to be true. And, as it turns out, it was.

Of course I was/am sad about the baby and what might of been, but truly, I was/am mad. I wanted those 3 months (not away from Kenny) but away from Hugo and his increasing craziness. I wanted my boys to go trick-or-treating with kids who wore costumes and said "trick-or-treat" instead of hanging out with kids in street clothes carrying pillowcases and yelling "Halloween." I wanted Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings instead of having to make-do with mail-order ingredients. I wanted to play in the snow and go for walks on actual sidewalks and eat sour cream and cottage cheese. I wanted to go Christmas caroling with our new baby girl bundled up in a fuzzy, pink snowsuit and watch "The Sound of Music" and "It's a Wonderful Life" on network television for the millionth time. I wanted all of that, and so much more and I still do.

October is coming and I'm worried. I'm worried that I haven't dealt with the baby as well as I think I have. I'm worried that when we're still here when we weren't supposed to be I won't be as "okay" as I think I am. Mostly, I'm worried that I am not as pragmatic or rational as I give myself credit for being. My kids deserve not to have these fears realized so I have taken some dramatic steps. I have begun what I call "project embrace Venezuela." We have gotten out the guide book, there is only one, and scoured it for everything and anything that sounds remotely fun. We have already embarked on a few of these adventures and though we've had mixed results, we are feeling a little more friendly towards our current home. We are becoming scuba certified and planning a Thanksgiving trip to Bonaire, purportedly the best scuba diving locale in the world. We have decided to spend Christmas in the US after all and I am ecstatic with anticipation. And, perhaps most dramatic of all, I have taken a job with the US Embassy.

I never planned to work after we had kids, at least not until they were old enough to be in school full-time. But, I came back from UT and knew I needed a distraction. Working for the man is just about what I expected it would be, but I am enjoying the adult interaction and the feeling that I am contributing to the US Government's diplomatic mission in Caracas. The unexpected drawback to the job (apart from the salary - this is definitely not a get rich quick scheme) is that the Department of State blocks blogger.com so I have been silent in my commenting and posting, though I continue to read all my favorites. Another drawback is that I miss my boys, but I love coming home to them and losing myself in the excitement of our reunion. My position is thankfully not full-time, but I think the job and my renewed determination to embrace this country is having the desired effect and if I'm lucky, October will ease quietly into our lives devoid of sadness and self-pity.

Gratuitous photos of come cool kids

T.I.V. Tuesday

Tomorrow we will not have internet access. Evidently, THE cable, yes, that is singular, that runs under the Caribbean sea from the USA to Venezuela has been damaged and is in need of emergency repair. This cable must be a wonder indeed. Millions of people linked into one mass of apparently vulnerable wiring all at the mercy of the tides and hopefully accommodating sea creatures.

Wednesday has been designated as repair day and the engineers will head out to the middle of nowhere large body of water and begin, what one can only assume must be, the painstaking process of bringing THE cable back to full life. During this process which supposedly will consume merely 4 hours (don't expect to hear from me before Friday) the entire country and surrounding region (i.e. Aruba, Curacao, Trinidad & Tobago etc.) will be without internet service.

The questions I have are 1) how was the cable damaged...I envision a very large anchor falling in precisely the wrong spot or a pod of mischievous whales wreaking havoc?; 2) if the repairs are so urgent why has service not heretofore been affected?; 3) since when does the government of Chavezland have the courtesy to report problems of this nature in advance? Which leads me to 4) is the world at last coming to an end?

This situation has given me pause. Of course I know that internet doesn't just appear in my house by magic or because I click my heels together and fervently wish. I know there is no Google Fairy or Firefox Sprite...but, I always just assumed there was more to internet service than just a big 'ole cable and hundreds of millions of little cables all snaking their way to the fiber optic mother ship. Is there no redundancy in the system, one wayward octopus and we short circuit? And, really, even if there is just the one cable, wouldn't we all be better served to pay the engineers overtime to fix it on the weekend than to shut down several economic systems in the middle of the week? Economics is not my forte by a long shot, but isn't this sort of like not preventing a pilot's strike at Christmas? Of course, "this is Venezuela" where nonsensical is de rigueur. I have to remind myself about the former bus driver who is the current foreign minister and his common law wife who is head of the Senate. I have to remind myself that we have been without sugar, in a country that grows sugarcane, for more than 2 months. I have to remind myself that last Friday Chavez nationalized the ports and then handed them over to the Cubans to run. I suppose with these conditions in mind I should be grateful that there is a cable at all and that we aren't expected to make sacrifices to Yahoo! in the hopes that he will feel magnanimous and grant us access to Amazon.com.

A New Member

Our housekeeper Mariza has been with us since just after we arrived in Caracas last year. She is a godsend in many ways, not the least of which is that she genuinely cares for our children. When Kenny is out of town over the weekends (which occurs often) she accompanies me to church to help with the boys while I direct the music in every conceivable meeting. A few months ago she started coming to our Sunday meetings even when Kenny was in town and then last week she made the decision to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was very excited, and we were thrilled to be there with her on such a very special day. The boys were a little confused and wanted to know why they too couldn't go in the water if both Mariza and Daddy (he baptized her) were. Mariza will likely return to her home country of Peru when we leave Venezuela next year, but for the time being we are delighted to be with her as she begins to learn more about this church we hold so dear. Next on the agenda is finding her skirts and dresses to suit her diminutive size.

School's Out for Summer

Caleb's last day of school was also a medals ceremony.

All the medals were alike and each child received one.

For whatever reason Caleb started the event in tears.

But, once the singing began he forgot his woes and joined in with gusto.

He sang the loudest of all the students. Apparently, he is always the loudest and was not just trying to impress his parents.

Then he received his medal. He was excited about it
for approximately 5 minutes, then took it off,
handed it to me and said, "no mas, Mommy."

The whole class.
(Incidentally, by law, all preschool children in Venezuela wear red shirts, elementary children wear white, junior high are assigned light blue and high school wear tan in all schools, public and private -- according to the government, it is just easier that way.)

Caleb with his teachers Margot and Mariolga. He has loved his school and only a week into vacation is already asking when he can go back. Mid-September is not going to come soon enough for either of us.