Good and other news

I arrived home last night after spending an evening with family and read an email from the Fulbright program. I learned that I have been placed in Mérida! I am excited about this because this is where I was hoping to go! Mérida is a beautiful city up in the mountains in Venezuela.

If all goes well, I will be teaching at CEVAM - el Centro Venezolano Americano de Mérida - an organization "dedicated to the promotion of friendship and understanding between the people of North America and Venezuela through social, cultural, philanthropic and educational activities. 


Sounds wonderful to me! 

I found this website that has several good photos of Mérida. Scroll down to the photos under "Los Chorros de Milla," I think I paddled around in that pond 20 years ago! Shortly after I first arrived in Venezuela as a high school student studying abroad, my host family took me to Mérida because my host sister had been accepted to the University of the Andes and was attending her orientation to the university.

My host family and I lived in Valera, if you look at a map it doesn't appear to be far from Mérida but I think it took at least four hours to drive there by car. The road winds up and down mountains (mostly up) and they're frighteningly narrow. My host mother honked her horn around every corner because we never knew when a truck or another car would be come flying down the road from the other direction. It was really scary! 

I also remember that car ride is where I learned to ask how much something costs. Tiny farms line the road between Mérida and Valera, on our way home, my host mother called out the window to these farmers with tiny stands at the side of the road, "A como la cebolla?" "A como el tomate?" "A como el ajo?""How much for the onion...tomato...garlic?" She bought a long rope of garlic bulbs braided together that she hung over the door to the kitchen. I thought the rope with dozens of garlic bulbs would last years but I think she managed to use it all within just a few months. 

Anyway, back to the present day. I have started the long and nail-biting process of requesting a visa for the 10 months I am expected to be in Venezuela. I was warned that it's not guaranteed that I will be able to get a visa. There are alternatives but I'll keep that under my hat for now. I'm hoping for the best!