And Its Only 2:00!

It has been a day filled with excitement, and its only 2:00. 

Our household awoke at 6:15 this morning, everyone eager for their first day of school and anxious about missing the bus.  It came at 7:45.  We had plenty of time.

Thanks for all of your prayers - Lilly and Sophia both seem well positioned to succeed this year.  Lilly's teacher was an American, very energetic and friendly, and Lilly had already met one of her classmates.  She was very nervous and quiet when I left her to her classroom, but I have no doubt she'll feel good when she comes home.

Sophia's teacher is a local Venezuelan, but she speaks such good English I assumed she was from the states.  She taught kindergarten in the U.S. for a number of years.  The blessing of her day was finding another American in her class.  And not only another American, but one also from the embassy, and who lives just down the street from us.  And not only an embassy American and neighbor, but also one who just began school on Monday.  The two are in the same boat many times over, which should increase her comfort zone tremendously.  She didn't want me to leave, but I snuck out while they were singing the National Anthem (the Venezuelan national anthem, that is - and its a long song!).  I think she'll come home feeling good as well.

Annika and I called a taxi to meet up with a friend for the morning, and then sat to wait.  Dave called while we were waiting, and explained that he was on his way to the hospital for a chest X-ray.  He began coughing up blood this morning, and so got to explore the Venezuelan hospital scene.  As with most things here, the hospital seemed much nicer than in China.  After the X-ray and a few blood draws, he hopped back into the car to return to work.  We assume this is nothing more than bronchitis, and hope that exploring the hospital is as exciting as this will get, as I am not eager to experience a Medevac at this stage.

We gave the wrong keys to the housekeeper, so Annika and I stopped there on the way to la casa de mi amiga.  I communicated effectively with the taxi driver, asking him to wait 5 minutes.  I felt very proud of myself.  Then I hopped back into the car, gave him the address, and waited much longer than I should have before telling him that we must have passed her building.  We took a back roads tour of the top of her mountain, which cost me all of the rest of my bolivares.  And when I say that, I'm not kidding.  We do not have a bank account here.  We do not have access to our bank account from here.  Dave used up all of his bolivares and some of his office sponsor's paying for his chest X-ray.  I used mine on a tour of the mountain.  We face the weekend dead broke.

This problem is really more amusing than troublesome.  We will eventually have a bank account here, and then we will be able to transfer money from our account in the U.S.  Until then, people work with us to make sure we have what we need.  People transfer money for us, and people loan us cash when necessary.  Everyone has gone through the same needs and offers help readily.  We are going to a pizza party tomorrow and Mariluz made leftovers from lunch today.  We will be fine... assuming we don't need to go to the hospital again.

Back to my friend Jeannine's house, where we paid the driver our last few bolivares and got out of the car.  Her guard was expecting us and showed us to the elevator.  Her elevator opens directly into her apartment, and so will not operate without a key.  Annika and I stood in the elevator for quite some time without moving.  Feeling kinda silly there, I got out to call the guard.  That is when Jeanine called the elevator to her home.  While I was outside the elevator and little Annika was inside.  Now, she's usually pretty fearless.  But when she saw this unknown elevator door closing on her mom, she got nervous.  So I reached in to stop the doors... and they didn't stop.  So I pulled the stroller out to stop the doors... and they didn't stop.  This made her very nervous.  It is a testament to the Maclaren company that our stroller did not collapse and break from the strain of those doors, because they did not stop pushing.

I eventually got Annika out of the elevator, and we chose to take the stairs.  It was not even 10:00 in the morning when we arrived. 

The rest of the day has been fairly dull.