My first afternoon back in Carorita

My time in Carorita was marked with frustration, for reasons I´m not yet able to describe, but the brief time I´ve been back has been great already in undoing some of that remembered frustration.

I left struggling greatly with the language and culture. Coming back, I´m much more competent in Spanish and that has opened up the community to me. It helps that I made it all the way from San Carlos to here on my own, and even was able to follow directions here and there. One humorous point deserves mention. The word ´bomba´is used a lot. Just about anything that has pressure or pumps is una bomba. From pumps and pressurized tanks to nebulizers and inhalers, bycicle pumps etc. A guy told me the bus I needed left from a place down this street, then you cross at the bomba, and go two blocks. I said thanks, and wondered what sort of bomba it could be. I was looking for a municipal water tank or something. I just walked a while and when I saw a lot of people and busses, started asking which ones went to La Puerta. Turns out the bomba was a gas station.

But anyway, it was amazing to come back to La Puerta and understand what all the people were saying, people who had been a frustrating mystery to me when I left. I was a little hungry when I got back to the house and so fried some plantains and had venezuelan style coffee, equal parts instant coffee and sugar. The plantains were topped with sugar and cream, the real kind that came from a cow I can see when I look out the window. Someone stopped by looking for some medicine, and while I couldn´t help them (Francisco accidentally took the key to the clinic with him to Maracaibo where he will be for a couple more days), I talked to them without any real problems.

When I left San Carlos I wasn´t particularly looking forward to coming back here; it was just the appropriate thing to do at this point in my schedule. But things are going well, and I feel like I don´t have enough time here to do everything I want to, which is a good thing I think. I hope to spend as much time as possible in the clinic in La Puerta, and spend some time in the surrounding communities, just looking around. I´m also going to be a tourist in Merida for a few days, and then it´s about time to head back to the US.

Right now I´m heading off on an adventure that my end my streak of successful cultural experiences. I´m going to try to work my way into the clinic here without Francisco here to connect me with the right people. I think I can probably start with the ambulance crew and work my way in from there. We´ll see. If it doesn´t work out, When Francisco gets back he can doubtless connect me with one of the doctors who will let me follow them around.