My day began with devotions and then a language acquisition class. During that time a missionary who spent many years in Central America went over some basic pronunciation and started some phrases and vocabulary word in Spanish. It was a pretty useful time. Next came "The Call," a simulation of mission experiences from being supported by the church to getting a visa to experiencing a new culture. It was not quite as useful. Most of it was very silly in my opinion, but it did make me think about what I would say in certain situations. The whole thing concluded with an authentic Indian meal. It consisted of rice, several types of curry, chicken and a flat bread. We sat on the floor and ate with our hands. I liked it a lot (especially Michelle, the very cute Indian girl serving us the food).
Today was the last day of the short term orientation classes. I think everyone is (at least all the IT guys are) glad it's over. They were just a little boring and often irrelevant for us who are only gone for a month. We spent a little time today reinstalling Linux with the updated scripts from Jonathan. Most of the stuff works, but there are still a few bugs. Tuesday night I didn't get to bed until real late and ended up getting only 4 hours sleep. Yesterday I was really cranky because of lack of sleep and I'm still very irritable today. I think in the future I should try and get some more sleep in order to avoid conflict with certain individuals.
This morning at 4:00 I set out on what is bound to be the most exciting and stretching experience of my life thus far. Josh and I flew out of Ontario at 7:00, changed planes in Houston, and arrived in Caracas at 8:20pm local time. I slept about 2 hours last night and got another hour or so in the first flight. I dozed a little more during the flight to Venezuela, but for the most part I'm running on 3 hours sleep and though it's 12:30 local time, 9:30 pacific (which I'm used to), I'm still running strong - must be adreneline or something. So far, nobody seems to speak English. I thought more people would be bi-lingual, but it's not the case. I had a little trouble getting the computer through customs, but Tom Mason, who traveled with us from Houston, was able to convince the customs agents to let me go through. I hope the other teams don't have the same problem because none of them have anyone else to help them get through. After we got out of customs, we met Darryl (?) and the Fiacks. We got a taxi from the airport to our hotel, 20 minutes away. There are no decent hotels near the airport, I was told. The taxi we took was just a guy's beat up old station wagon. He and another guy helped us with our luggage from the airport to the car out in the parking lot. At the car there were a couple guys trying to look like they were helping, hoping to get a tip. Driving through Caracas was cool. Houses (more like concrete block shacks) are literally stacked upon houses and I have never in my life seen so many cars broken down on the side of the road. I really like the geography here. The mountains spring up right out of the ocean. Our hotel is right on the shore. The waves are faster than in California, but smaller. We had dinner at the seafood restraunt that's part of the hotel. The tables were outside, across the street, right on the shore. I had the caranes fritos (fried shrimp) which were very good. For 4 people, the bill came to just under 30,000 bovitos (at least I think that's the unit of currency here) which at 600 to 1 translates to $50. While we were eating, a cat walked by the table looking for a hand out. I mention it because it didn't look like a North American cat at all. It was smaller and thinner and almost looked more like the Taco Bell chiwawa than a cat. On the way back from dinner, a young boy asked us if we wanted him to get us some women. I could believe it: a 10 year old pimp. Well, I'm not sure when I have to get up in the morning, so I'm going to bed now in case it's early.
I awoke to a pounding on the hotel door at 6:30. We got up, got dressed and headed for the airport to catch our 9:00 flight (which didn't leave until 9:20, but that's apparently no big deal). I fell asleep during the takeoff and drifted in and out of consciousness for the duration of the hour and a half flight from Caracas to Puerto Ayacucho. On the flight we were served a cheese sandwitch, drinks and a piece of candy. The Coca-cola here is sweeter than in the states, but not quite as sweet as Pepsi (which they do have here, but I haven't had a chance to try it yet). I'm staying in a fairly large house on a big chunk of property with Josh and Bruce, who arrived the same time as us and is just beginning his term here. The current email hub is in a shed behind the house. I'm not sure if it'll stay there or not, but I'm guessing it probably will because it's Bruce's house and he wants to keep it in there. I unpacked my stuff and crashed on my bed at around 12:30. Around 2:30 Josh woke me up and told me I might want to get up so I could sleep better tonight. To this, propmtly rolled over and went back to sleep for another hour. We all had dinner tonight at Greg and Debbie Johnston's house. It was good food and a chance to meet some of the other missionaries. The pilots' wives seem to pump out babies like factories. They were all over the place. There were probably 10 or 12 kids all together, the oldest being around 6. Now I think I'll try to block out the blaring Spanish music from across the street and go to sleep.