Take II

At the behest of my mother, its beyond incumbent that I update my blog. I've been in Caracas about five weeks now, and the time has been flying. I'm just going to provide a brief overview of my recent activities, which are myriad. I haven't had much time to contemplate or reflect much because the settling in process has been so intense. I spent my first two weeks here living in a hotel, about twenty minutes from the Embassy. Every morning, I had a fantastic breakfast buffet, which presented an assortment of local and Western specialties. Venezuela has lots of different fruits and some key dishes. One is the arepa, kind of like a thick corn patty stuffed with a variety of goodies, often shredded meats and melted cheese. Another is a cachapa, a large sweet corn pancake folder over, stuffed with meat and cheese. These have quickly become a favorite of mine. After breakfast an embassy driver would come and pick me up and drive me to the embassy. Because the the high crime situation here, we are forbidden from using public transportation. With the exchange rate, taxis are very expensive. As such, until our cars arrive via Miami, the embassy provides daily transportation to and from work. Not a bad perk.

My first day of work, Friday, I dressed in my best suit, a black and grey pinstripe number, with a red tie. When I arrived at the embassy, I was dropped off at the back door and a local employee let me in. I had no idea where to go. I wandered around a while until I found someone to tell me where to go. Unfortunately, when I got to my office, the door was locked with a code, so I waited outside until someone eventually let me in. First observation; I was the only one dressed in a suit. Fridays are casual days in my section. I'm still trying to determine if I was hazed by my office sponsor, or if he just neglected to tell me I could wear casual clothes. Nonetheless, I met my bosses and coworkers, was assigned a desk, and got to work.

The first week was spent checking into the embassy, i.e. payroll, meeting all the muckety mucks, setting up my bank accounts, turning in vouchers, getting the paperwork done for accreditation, and so forth. Also, I was provided a list that I had to get signatures on for every check in procedure. Almost like a bureaucratic treasure hunt, with no prize at the end but more work.

The second week, I got down to learning my next assignment. Vice Consul on the Non-Immigrant visa line. I spent the first day reading up on immigration law, the next few days observing the other officers, then then two days of processing renewals (essentially, rubber stamping visa applicants who have already legally traveled to the US and came back. Since they came back at least once already, its a safe bet they'll come back again).

At the start of the third week, I was on the line...

Meanwhile, I've been quite busy socially. I've been out with most of my coworkers, either going to house parties, restaurants, or just shopping. Again, because of the crime situation, most socializing goes on in public places in groups or at home, and there is no wandering around

exploring by one's self here. My most recent foray has been taking scuba diving lessons. A local officer here is a certified scuba inctructor and offers lessons on the side. We spent about three evenings at his house going through written coursework and taking a series of written exams. This past weekend, while the ambassador was away, we went to his house and did closed water drills in his pool for two days. All I can say is the ambassador has some nice digs.

Next week we're going out to the ocean to do our open water dives. We have to do four dives on two separate days, so we'll probably go the following weekend as well. When we're finished, we'll be certified and then I can travel to the Carribean Isles for some of my next trips.

Pictures are of us scuba diving in the ambassador's pool, the view from my new apartment, and a Macaw that used to sit outside of my temp apartment where I stayed for a few weeks after the hotel, waiting for my permanent apartment to come available.

More to come...

M