The tiger and the Lily

When we went to the Trinidad Zoo, Lily didn´t want to get too close to the tiger. This is how she voiced her concern when Emily approached the cage with the trolley. Click on the film, watch and listen. Mii, mii, miii!

Reflections on Venezuela

A week after having left Venezuela, some thoughts have resurfaced. Thoughts that briefly might have fluttered up in my conscience those many late evenings I spent sitting in the white living room Pampatar, with a glistening glass of aged Gran Kazike-rhum in my hand, watching a DVD on the computer before slowly and blissfully passing out on the couch. Thoughts on things that cripples Venezuela , and whether they can be traced to peoples minds, culture, politics or what. I really don´t know. But the question bears importance for many underdeveleped countries.
Take for instance the maintanence of supermarkets. The chinese owns Venezuelas small local supermarkets, and they are well kept, with the goods carefully stapled, prices pen-marked on every single item and goods regularly cleaned with a cloth. Things are different in the venezuelan-owned outlets. Take Rattan, who has three giant and supposedly high class supermarkets on Margarita Island. They are relatively expensive, and target a wealthy customer market. But around one third of the goods in the shops dont have any prices marked. This has several effects. For every single unmarked item, customers have to look for one of the few scattered computer code-readers in the shops, which requires a lot of walking and prolongs the shopping tour a lot. But some clients don´t do that. They stack up the goods they want to buy, plus alternative goods on their cart and when they get to the cashier they watch the prices register, and every item that is to costly (some imported items are very expensive) they tell the cashier to leave it on the side (normally after a brief discussion). Each cashier often have 3-4 people serving the customer. As you can understand, the numerous staff also leads to complex chains of contacts and discussion during the handling of every customer. And yes, queues do get very long and slow. If you are used to normal rational handling, it is painful to watch.
When Abukar came to Margarita, we went to Rattan and happened to be standing in the aisle of chocolates (surprise), where one of the staff folded some boxes. It was an aisle where none of the maybe hundred items on the shelves had any prices, and Abukar suggested we ask her why.
- Well, this is christmas season and we have been moving around things in the shops have not had time to mark up all the goods, she answered.
Her answer was an apparent lie (I came in early October and it things looked exactly the same then), but it did actually reveal an ambition that the shop items should be marked. But it just doesn´t happen. Employees do their work, bosses boss, everybody live their life and dont get hung up on things that some people claim must be done. Its all good, take it easy, the world wont crumble. Personally, I get annoyed to look at the multiplicatory bad effects of such negligence, especially since I realize that this way of thinking, or rather, not doing, perpetrates the whole society, deteriorating everyday life for everyone. It applies to all parts of infrastructure, from pavements, walls, electricity, water, plumbing etc. And I am not fussy about order. My philosophy: You DON´T have to do things properly from the start. But you have to do them properly ENOUGH from the start, not to get to do much more work later.
There is a sign in our bathroom here in Trinidad, that says in Spanish: "Throw toilet paper in the toilet, not the paper basket."
Why? Because Venezuelas plumbing is made with such an inferior quality and dimensions, that if you throw toilet paper in the toilet, it clogs and flood the floor. Hence, in Venezuela, you learn to throw toilet paper in a adjacent paper basket. (Yes - smelly.) Of course, when going abroad, many venezuelans continue with this habit from a dysfunctional plumbing system.

Calypso Christmas

We had our Christmas smorgasbord at the Trinidad Hilton, situated just 500 meters from our more modest hotel, and shared the supper with an French-Canadian couple, who live and work in French Guyana. It was a soft evening in a exclusive environment. The morning after, Lily and I playing in the jacuzzi, shaded by a mango tree, in the lush caribbean hotel garden, with the hills of St Ann behind us. All of a sudden a group of big and croaking parrots landed in the tree, making a racket chopping at the mangoes and dropping small branches in the jacuzzi. It was the first time I experienced wild parrots. Just as the case is with monkeys, who Emily and I met in Gibraltar during our honeymoon, these animals appear rather rude and intrusive when met in their natural habitat.
Coming from Venezuela, this is the first time I have travelled from an ethnically white country to an ethnically black, where the white country is the poor, messy country, and the black is the rich and formal. Here, the white guest workers are the ones who look worn, poor and frayed as they hang around the docks of Chaguaramas waiting for the Venezuela ferry, and the black personal in smart dresses urge them to fill in the proper forms. Basically Trinidad is all that a country like Kenya could be. And Port of Spain is a very pleasant city, reasonably safe, wealthy and with a nice friendly atmosphere in a colonial surrounding. Hectic and professional but relaxed and smiling at the same time. For Christmas Day, we were invited to Christmas dinner at some adventists, Rochelle and her family, that Emily met in church. Nice.

We have also been to the zoo, and saw the worlds biggest rat, the capybara, with almost the size and look of a lion, (well I did say almost) and spider-monkeys, with their cool attitudes. And then, to top it all off, I happened to stumble upon the sign that prohibits signs.

Trinidad & Tobago

Today, we flew over from Isla Margarita to Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. Its another world, a former British colony, richer, cleaner and with better roads than Venezuela. And a lot more expensive. We stay in Alicias Guesthouse, Port of Spain, for ten days, with a lush garden, swimming pool, jacuzzi and wireless broadband access in our rooms. However, no view whatsoever, and the merits of the kitchen are debatable. A letter from grandma Birgitta awaited us, it arrived in ten days. In comparison, her efforts in sending a letter to us in Venezuela did not bear fruit at all, the country is simply too unsystematic.
On the airport in Porlamar, we bought Lily a talking Chavez doll, complete with his howling revolutionary rethoric when you press a button on his back. Sweet. She insisted in taking off his clothes. I appealed to her to at least let him keep his red beret on.

Triumphant farewell to Venezuela

During the Christmas season Isla Margaritas population will increase with almost 400.000 vacationers. The streets and shops are simmering. Climate is nice, around 25 degrees centigrade and occational showers of rain. However, the Frigyes family is going the other way. Tomorrow we will leave both the island and Venezuela, to stay for ten days at the hotel Alicias House, Port of Spain, Trinidad. So that´s where we will spend Christmas. For three days, we have had our friend from Sweden staying with us in Pampatar: Abukar. He studies spanish here for some weeks, and will inherit our telephone number.
Our last day in Venezuela turned out triumphantly for me. I won a dancing contest! I spite of fierce competicion from several latin lovers. How it came about? Well we decided to spend our last day at "Parque el Agua", a watertheme-park, with lots of games, slides, waterfalls etc. for the young. And during an activity by the giant jacuzzi I was forced to participate in a dancing competition against four other male specimens. I improvised a mix of Chavez body moves and pointing and waving to the audience with winding pelvis movements (oh yes, utterly embarrasing!), and bold native dance steps. And the audience was bewildered by my ruthless attitude and innovative blend and cheeringly chose me as the male dance winner. I recieved a diploma.

Click the image, and a little clip of Lily playing in Sambil will start roll (if you are lucky and have decent broadband access).

Informal behaviour

When we went to a restaurant the other day it was the first time I experienced the a waiter actually clipping his fingernails while taking the order. A prime example of venezuelan "informal" behaviour, however admittedly of a rather less inspiring kind. Still, the lack of professionalism is also what makes the people charming and open. People never hesitate to get personal, to share their views. They are easy to talk to, on buses, beaches, in shops. In a way it also makes you feel more secure, they would help you if something happened. Sometimes the informalism is rather disturbing. Like when I in the hospital in November saw a male and a female nurse kissing and cuddling each other in the corridor. Or the police officer that approached Jonas in full uniform, asking if he wanted to change dollars (on the black market). Coming back to the waiter at the restaurant, it could have been worse.
He could have been clipping his toenails.

Look who´s talking

Alice. Well not really talking. But she does repeat simple words. And occationally she uses her words connected to things. And she continuously babbles, varying her intonation, and points on different things as to make it clear that she has firm views on specific topics. Lily was very slow in learning to walk but quick in language, Alice was quick with walking but is slow with words. She says "papa" clearly.

What else is new? Well apart from Jonas, we have had another Swedish visit, Andreas (grandson of mothers friend Dorrit) and his friend Madeleine, who are on a surfer vacation on Playa El Yaque. They came over to our place, for a curry, and on a subsequent very windy day we visited their beach, and were lucky to see the world champion in freestyle wind surfing showing off his tricks.

Christmas spirit with Hugo the poet

Yesterday morning on the state television, president Chavez in a black suit and tie was reciting poems with the support of a acoustic guitar player. Am I dreaming or what? Anyway, it may be construed as a way of promoting the true Christmas spirit in Venezuela. And Christmas is close, with lots of Caracas-people coming to the island every day. Luckily they have mounted a neon christmas tree outside our window.

Chavez, by the way, has now also established a formal collective greeting to be used by the military: "Fatherland, socialism or death". Will somebody pinch my arm.

Familiar greetings

We have a neighbourhood friend and taxi driver called Jail. I must admit I enjoy raising my right hand towards him and shouting "Heil" when I see him on the street. But it turns out I am anly making a fool out of myself. Today I learned that he for one pronounces the J in his name with an English J-sound and not the normal spanish h-like jota-sound.

Narrow victory for Chavez opponents

Hugo Chavez PSUV did not convice the venezuelan people about the the merits of the proposed socialist constitution. 51 per cent of the people said no thanks, and my personal opinion is that it was the defection of the former defence minister and Chavez loyalist Baduel (who influenced many army officers) and the fierce opposition from the democracy movement at the universities that made the scale tip over. This will cool down the revolution for some time. And I hope it brings up the work of progressive work of deepening democracy, spreading education, improving health care and at least start working on the environmental issues. And, of course, dealing with crime and corruption.
Otherwise what news in Pampatar? Well a Swedish guest visitor, Jonas, employee at Riksrevisionsverket, is staying a couple of days with us. He brought Lily some Swedish DVDs and the girls love to play with him - and talk Swedish. Its feels nice to have another fellw countryman here, since we have never been abroad for so long before, and sometimes we have felt isolated.