The Hits Keep On Comin'

The weekend just continues to bring excitement.

I woke up at 6:30 this morning - far too early for a Sunday morning.  Early enough to jump in a van with a bunch of others and head over to the Chinese market.  The Chinese are a noteable minority in Caracas. Chavez has buddied up to China and they may have shipped over a bunch of workers to help out.  The Chinese market is only held on Sunday mornings, but it is packed.  It felt like China all over again - with butchers whacking up room temperature meat on folding tables, boxes and piles of bright green vegetables, people pushing and people smoking and loads of delicious smells.  We found our way into a dim sum restaurant and enjoyed some of the best dumplings I've had in years.

Dave and the girls met me at church, because they're not really 7am marketers.  Dave spent most of the church service in the nursery with Annika, who would not be left alone.  I spent the service without focus, listening to the folks chatter behind me and playing with my phone.  The pastor speaks well, but I keep comparing to our church in Virginia and feeling homesick.

We stayed after the service for the coffee hour and were blessed to meet quite a few people.  We chatted with two families who look like ours, even with girls in the 2nd grade.  We chatted with a restauranteur who promises to treat us in a few weeks.  We learned a bit of the history of the church - begun in the early 1900s, it was originally the American church and catered to a large community.  As it aged and grew, it became the International church and catered to an even larger community.  Before Chavez, they had 400 active members.  After Chavez, the pastor lost his visa and the big companies pulled out their expats and the church dwindled to only a handful of regular attenders.

A year and a half ago, those regular attenders found a Venezuelan pastor who trained in the U.S. and is quite familiar with running an American church.  The church has a new energy, and has kept many of their visitors since he came.  The children's program is growing.  We went to lunch with the pastor and his family - including another 2nd grade girl!  We enjoyed their company, their taste in food, and their heart and vision for the church.  It doesn't feel anything like home yet, but we will stick.

We spent all of our cash on lunch.  But we weren't worried, because we now have a number of new things:  1. a local bank account;  2. money in our local bank account, and 3. a debit card for our local bank account.  We headed to the ATM at the embassy on our way to the grocery store.  We went in the wrong gate.  Then Dave forgot his access code.  Then we went in through the right gate.  Then Dave forgot his pin number.  We didn't get any cash.  So we didn't go to the grocery store.  It was a bit of a bummer after such a fun day - and it struck both of us how we can weather the major challenges, but the little things can really strike a blow to our moods.

However, we were able to pull together some pizza-empanadas for dinner (not bad, but not great) while the girls' cleaned the house.  When Dave left for his party, the girls behaved well and went to sleep on time.  As we wrap up this weekend, Dave has found his way to a Super Bowl Party and I have found my way to a quiet house and a bag of Doritos.  Why waste an excuse to increase my caloric consumption for the day?  With every passing day, we discover something new about our home and we feel a bit more settled.