As you can imagine, I've been rather obsessively googling Caracas and Venezuela for the last few days. I'm pulling together bits and pieces, and here's what I've got so far:
The Good:
Apparently, the place is beautiful. Caracas nestles up against rows of green mountains, which abut the ocean, making Venezuela the country with the longest Caribbean coastline.
The school seems unreservedly good. Probably not perfect, but I have yet to see a bad review of the place. It seems that they foster community and have a truly international spirit with an American curriculum.
The commute will be amazing. The Embassy, our housing, and the school each rest within 2km of each other.
The city of the eternal summer has nightime lows in the 70s and daytime highs in the 80s, all year long. The rainy season brings humidity, and the dry season clears all that out - but that's the only real change in the weather.
The list goes on: fantastic fresh fruits are available year-round; access is easy to the islands of the Carribean; the interior of the country includes amazing and still wild wonders like Angel Falls and the Amazon rainforest.
The Bad:
Apparently, the environment within the embassy could be better. Allow me to choose diplomatic language - for the work environment, this is generally no one's favorite post. However, word on the street is that new management is arriving soon and plans to turn morale around.
Dave's work will be purely consular, and the language of Venezuela is Spanish. He's not so excited about working the visa line for two years; and he would prefer to invest in French or Portugese, in a language which prepares him for a career in Africa rather than in the Western Hemisphere. I expect these attitudes to improve once he begins the work, but he's not feeling excited yet.
Housing is all apartments, so there'll be no running outside to play or meeting at the playground. Security concerns keep everyone rather confined. This makes the good school close by particularly valuable.
The Ugly:
Caracas apparently holds the world record for number of annual homicides per capita. It may also hold the world record for number of annual homicides, forgetting about the capitas. It beat out Baghdad four-fold a few years ago and it doubles Mexico with its drug cartels and sizable land mass. A politically charged environment with under-funded police and a vast rich-poor divide fueled by an oil boom has left a country with loads of folks wielding guns. Carjackings, muggings, kidnappings and murder are all far too common in Caracas.
My comfort is that the most violent and the most frequent of these offenses occur inside a few awful neighborhoods - places we will never go. We will live carefully, watch our backs, not argue with folks holding guns, and pray an awful lot for our safety. We will spend a lot of time at work, at home and at school - which we do anyway. We will be careful, and we will focus on the positive.
And we will probably not expect many visitors in Caracas. So, we will be in Virginia for the next 18 months or so. Our safe neighborhood and our comfortable backyard invite you to soak up some time with us before we take off for the murder capital of the world.
The Good:
Apparently, the place is beautiful. Caracas nestles up against rows of green mountains, which abut the ocean, making Venezuela the country with the longest Caribbean coastline.
The school seems unreservedly good. Probably not perfect, but I have yet to see a bad review of the place. It seems that they foster community and have a truly international spirit with an American curriculum.
The commute will be amazing. The Embassy, our housing, and the school each rest within 2km of each other.
The city of the eternal summer has nightime lows in the 70s and daytime highs in the 80s, all year long. The rainy season brings humidity, and the dry season clears all that out - but that's the only real change in the weather.
The list goes on: fantastic fresh fruits are available year-round; access is easy to the islands of the Carribean; the interior of the country includes amazing and still wild wonders like Angel Falls and the Amazon rainforest.
The Bad:
Apparently, the environment within the embassy could be better. Allow me to choose diplomatic language - for the work environment, this is generally no one's favorite post. However, word on the street is that new management is arriving soon and plans to turn morale around.
Dave's work will be purely consular, and the language of Venezuela is Spanish. He's not so excited about working the visa line for two years; and he would prefer to invest in French or Portugese, in a language which prepares him for a career in Africa rather than in the Western Hemisphere. I expect these attitudes to improve once he begins the work, but he's not feeling excited yet.
Housing is all apartments, so there'll be no running outside to play or meeting at the playground. Security concerns keep everyone rather confined. This makes the good school close by particularly valuable.
The Ugly:
Caracas apparently holds the world record for number of annual homicides per capita. It may also hold the world record for number of annual homicides, forgetting about the capitas. It beat out Baghdad four-fold a few years ago and it doubles Mexico with its drug cartels and sizable land mass. A politically charged environment with under-funded police and a vast rich-poor divide fueled by an oil boom has left a country with loads of folks wielding guns. Carjackings, muggings, kidnappings and murder are all far too common in Caracas.
My comfort is that the most violent and the most frequent of these offenses occur inside a few awful neighborhoods - places we will never go. We will live carefully, watch our backs, not argue with folks holding guns, and pray an awful lot for our safety. We will spend a lot of time at work, at home and at school - which we do anyway. We will be careful, and we will focus on the positive.
And we will probably not expect many visitors in Caracas. So, we will be in Virginia for the next 18 months or so. Our safe neighborhood and our comfortable backyard invite you to soak up some time with us before we take off for the murder capital of the world.
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