Editor's note: Gareth Davies, who is currently in Venezuela on a Rotary International Exchange, wrote the following article.
Gareth Davies - Special to The Chief
After settling into my new environment; there is an increasing feeling that Canada is a far off exotic world: however adapting is proving to be far from easy.
Everybody here looks the same. No matter what I do here the people think Im handsome, being that I am blonde with blue eyes. I have girls asking me if they can have my eyes. I say: No, because it would hurt to get such an operation.
My school in Venezuela is called PIO Xii; a small catholic school taught by nuns. The school is completely concrete, there is no grass, and we are locked in for the whole day. There are 230 students in the school ranging from ages 6 to 16 (I am 19-years-old). School starts at 7 a.m., finishes at 1 p.m., starts again at 2.30 p.m. and finishes at 5.30 p.m. It is very long hours, and the teachers insist on dictating in Spanish, they never write on the board.
I cannot get over how dirty the city is. Cows turn up in the weirdest places, I saw one in a shop the other day. Charities are rare to find, 20 per cent of the population is well off while everyone else is a slave to work.
There are many problems with cruelty to animals. Starving dogs line the streets and turn up dead at the sides of the roads covered in flies and vultures. One can buy any kind of bird in a pet store: from Toucans, to even wild Canadian ones.
There are many uneducated people. In the outskirts of San Cristóbal I am surrounded by fascinated children, this can be slightly unnerving. My host family owns two farms (one of them being over 60,000 acres of coffee and bananas), five commercial buildings, and an amazing candy store.
My host family is very kind, although communication can be difficult. For the first while I had no idea where I was going, or what I was doing. I simply got into the car when told. People here can be more than three hours late sometimes, and greeting people can take minutes. One has to kiss every girl on the left cheek, and shake every guys hand, otherwise they get offended.Nobody likes Hugo Chavez (the president of Venezuela), and I am constantly asked my opinion on George Bush, but the most frequently asked question is: What do you think about Venezuelan women?
My Rotary Club is called Tariba (there are more than five different Rotary Clubs in the city). The club meetings are held in a small derelict building consisting of around 12 members at the most, but it supports five international students. The food is absolutely amazing, fresh fruits, meat, and coffee. I eat cultural Andes food everyday; they don't eat anything remotely Canadian in my house, and its very different from Mexican food.
