Well, you can probably guess what this post is going to be about....that's right folks, we've got bugs. Now I'm happy to report, unlike some other parts of the world, that ours are relatively small and harmless and I have waged an all out war on them.
Ants: Ants are a pretty common thing here. I think the ones that we have came in on a bag of sugar and quickly made themselves at home. They are little sugar ants and they do little more than drive me crazy building their highway across the kitchen. Unfortunately for them, when the first HHE shipment arrived (last Friday), my Terro ant traps also arrived. Within a day I had them under control.
Bugs: 0 Steph: 1
Cockroaches: Yes, it's disgusting, but cockroaches pretty much come with the territory here. I did have to laugh when our housekeeper asked if they were big ones or small ones that we had. I said big ones and she was relieved. She said those are the kind you just kill and throw out. The little ones get into everything according to her. So, GSO helped me out by putting some goo down on the drains and I put down some traps with a lovely snack that they can take to their nest so that if we find them at all, they will be dead.
Bugs: 0 Steph: 2
Indian Meal Moths: Well, I saved the best for last. These, quite frankly, are making me absolutely crazy. They are a kind of moth that comes in on flour or grains (probably some beans or flour from the grocery store) and they feed and breed in those things and in your cupboards. We have thrown away so much food it makes me sick and I have cleaned the cupboards inside and out at least three times. Every morning we come into the kitchen to find at least one of these little guys perched on the ceiling. I curse them, kill them and wait for the next day to see how many I will find. At this point we have no idea where they're coming from. There's nothing left for them to live on. We have cleaned everything and have not found anything that looks like the webbing they makes, etc. All of my rice, pasta, flour, sugar, anything they might like is now in the freezer. The cupboards are bare with only tin cans remaining. I did talk to a friend who had these in Guyana and she said it takes a while to get rid of them, so I'm hoping we're still winning. In the meantime, I ordered traps for these little guys on Amazon. The good news is...every day there are less of them. The last two days we have only found 1 or 2. The bad news is...I'm still finding 1 or 2 a day.
Bugs:1 Steph: 2
As you can see from the scoreboard, I'm still winning. I hope to be reporting the final score along with victory in my next blog post
Single handedly keeping the do it yourself pest control industry in business from Venezuela!
S
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
She Said: Work in Quito
Greetings from Quito! At this point I know many of you are thinking, "what...Quito"? What's goings on? Let me take a second to explain. This is a great update for any FS spouses who might be reading this wondering if I will ever find work as "fsowannabe" posted in the comments under my last blog. I hope you are inspired!
As you all know, I have really been looking hard to find something that would be fulfilling, interesting work for me in Caracas that would allow me to utilize my skills. I do not want to demean embassy jobs for spouses in any way, because for many they provide a good option. The problem has been that the opportunities that have been options for me have just not been a good match for me. A couple of weeks ago, a friend mentioned a development project proposal in Ecuador and told me they were looking for someone to help them translate their proposal and fit it to the formats requested by the funding organization, etc. She asked if I'd be interested. Those of you who know me well already know the answer to that question is obvious. About a week later they contacted me and decided they wanted to hire me on a short term contract. After speaking on skype a few times, they also thought it would be a good idea for me to come to Quito for 10 days or so to work on the proposal with them. So, that's how I got to Quito...without Brian :-(.
I have to say that Quito is absolutely fantastic. Although I have been working from about 8:00-8:00 nearly every day, what I have seen of the city is wonderful. It's modern, they have lots of green space and the prices are shockingly cheap compared to Caracas. It was cold and rainy today (something I haven't seen in a really long time) so I needed to buy something to keep warm. I bought a hand knit wool sweater at the artisan market for $12. Incredible! Aside from that, the people that I have interacted with here are outstanding, "chevere" as we say in Venezuela. They are very warm, patient and welcoming people. In addition to the people and the place that are so great here I am also loving my work. I have found that even though I have been working so much and arrive at the hotel absolutely exhausted at the end of the day, I am enthralled by my work. It is one of the most intriguing projects I have ever worked on and I feel privileged to be included in the discussions I have been a part of here. This could be the catalyst I needed to go ahead an launch my own consulting business.
As I said when I opened this post, I hope any FS spouses who might be discouraged or willing to give in because they haven't found interesting work are energized by my post and that it gives them some hope that something's out there. For me it just took talking to a lot of people about my interests, time and patience with finding the right thing.
Tomorrow I'm planning to get up early and go to Mitad del Mundo which I'll have to write more about once I've seen it, but I heard it's pretty cool. Hope all is well wherever you are reading this (especially you in Caracas Bri)!
Abrazos!
As you all know, I have really been looking hard to find something that would be fulfilling, interesting work for me in Caracas that would allow me to utilize my skills. I do not want to demean embassy jobs for spouses in any way, because for many they provide a good option. The problem has been that the opportunities that have been options for me have just not been a good match for me. A couple of weeks ago, a friend mentioned a development project proposal in Ecuador and told me they were looking for someone to help them translate their proposal and fit it to the formats requested by the funding organization, etc. She asked if I'd be interested. Those of you who know me well already know the answer to that question is obvious. About a week later they contacted me and decided they wanted to hire me on a short term contract. After speaking on skype a few times, they also thought it would be a good idea for me to come to Quito for 10 days or so to work on the proposal with them. So, that's how I got to Quito...without Brian :-(.
I have to say that Quito is absolutely fantastic. Although I have been working from about 8:00-8:00 nearly every day, what I have seen of the city is wonderful. It's modern, they have lots of green space and the prices are shockingly cheap compared to Caracas. It was cold and rainy today (something I haven't seen in a really long time) so I needed to buy something to keep warm. I bought a hand knit wool sweater at the artisan market for $12. Incredible! Aside from that, the people that I have interacted with here are outstanding, "chevere" as we say in Venezuela. They are very warm, patient and welcoming people. In addition to the people and the place that are so great here I am also loving my work. I have found that even though I have been working so much and arrive at the hotel absolutely exhausted at the end of the day, I am enthralled by my work. It is one of the most intriguing projects I have ever worked on and I feel privileged to be included in the discussions I have been a part of here. This could be the catalyst I needed to go ahead an launch my own consulting business.
As I said when I opened this post, I hope any FS spouses who might be discouraged or willing to give in because they haven't found interesting work are energized by my post and that it gives them some hope that something's out there. For me it just took talking to a lot of people about my interests, time and patience with finding the right thing.
Tomorrow I'm planning to get up early and go to Mitad del Mundo which I'll have to write more about once I've seen it, but I heard it's pretty cool. Hope all is well wherever you are reading this (especially you in Caracas Bri)!
Abrazos!
Friday, January 8, 2010
She Said: Fireworks
Happy new year everyone! Wow...absurd, I know. It has been way too long since we've written. I don't know what happened exactly, I guess the holidays. We spent a lot of our time over the last several weeks preparing for and enjoying the Christmas season. It was really great. We were able to skype with family so that we could watch each other open gifts and almost felt like we were together for a celebration. It was really fun! Brian and I also hosted a Christmas day dinner in our apartment. I ordered Christmas dishes, got everything ready, prepped the food, etc. and we really enjoyed the day with friends.
I've been thinking about the blog and there are several things that I'd like to share that I haven't had a chance to share with you yet. In an attempt to not overwhelm you with everything in one post, I think I'll try and do several posts over the next couple of weeks to catch up and then once again resolve to post more often.
When I think of fireworks in the states, some very fond memories come to mind from 4th of July and other big celebrations where family and friends would gather to watch well orchestrated fireworks displays set off by organizations or officials. Since we arrived, but particularly since the holiday season started, we have discovered that fireworks in Venezuela are very different. Here, almost anybody can purchase commercial style fireworks to set off at home and they are relatively cheap. They purchase and set them off for children's birthdays, anniversary celebrations, "let's have friends over and show them how much money we have parties", etc. Apologies for the sarcasm, but people definitely do use fireworks to see who can display that they have more money to buy better fireworks here. One thing Venezuelans love to do is party and even birthday parties for 3 year olds here involve chair covers, jumping castles and fireworks.
From about December 15th -January 5th there were fireworks nearly every night. Sometimes they were close, for example on the 23rd there was a fire behind our building caused by 8-11 year old CHILDREN setting off fireworks on the patio, and sometimes they were far away and beautiful. We spent many nights sleeping with our earplugs in as we adjusted to a somewhat barbaric tradition. It was definitely a cultural adjustment. On Christmas eve, Brian and I found ourselves feeling very angry that our neighbors' children were once again on the back patio shooting off fireworks after we had just had a fire in the back yard the day before and it took the fire department 40 minutes to respond with a truck that didn't have a hose long enough to reach the fire. While I'm still not happy about it and would hope that it'll be different next year (or we'll be out of town for Christmas), but by New Year's eve we realized that we are never going to change the Venezuelans. Seeing how fireworks safety is managed here gave us a greater appreciation of some of the protections we do have in the states (what?!?!? 7 year olds shouldn't be responsible for putting on the fireworks show for the adults?!?!?!?!)
The culmination of the fireworks was on New Year's Eve. The tradition here is to set off fireworks at midnight. Here's a short video taken by our friend to give you an idea of what it was like:
It felt a bit like a war zone, but it was pretty amazing to see from way up on the hill. So, that's fireworks in Venezuela. Can't wait to see what they're like for independence day here. Hoping you had a wonderful Christmas and wishing you a happy new year!
I've been thinking about the blog and there are several things that I'd like to share that I haven't had a chance to share with you yet. In an attempt to not overwhelm you with everything in one post, I think I'll try and do several posts over the next couple of weeks to catch up and then once again resolve to post more often.
When I think of fireworks in the states, some very fond memories come to mind from 4th of July and other big celebrations where family and friends would gather to watch well orchestrated fireworks displays set off by organizations or officials. Since we arrived, but particularly since the holiday season started, we have discovered that fireworks in Venezuela are very different. Here, almost anybody can purchase commercial style fireworks to set off at home and they are relatively cheap. They purchase and set them off for children's birthdays, anniversary celebrations, "let's have friends over and show them how much money we have parties", etc. Apologies for the sarcasm, but people definitely do use fireworks to see who can display that they have more money to buy better fireworks here. One thing Venezuelans love to do is party and even birthday parties for 3 year olds here involve chair covers, jumping castles and fireworks.
From about December 15th -January 5th there were fireworks nearly every night. Sometimes they were close, for example on the 23rd there was a fire behind our building caused by 8-11 year old CHILDREN setting off fireworks on the patio, and sometimes they were far away and beautiful. We spent many nights sleeping with our earplugs in as we adjusted to a somewhat barbaric tradition. It was definitely a cultural adjustment. On Christmas eve, Brian and I found ourselves feeling very angry that our neighbors' children were once again on the back patio shooting off fireworks after we had just had a fire in the back yard the day before and it took the fire department 40 minutes to respond with a truck that didn't have a hose long enough to reach the fire. While I'm still not happy about it and would hope that it'll be different next year (or we'll be out of town for Christmas), but by New Year's eve we realized that we are never going to change the Venezuelans. Seeing how fireworks safety is managed here gave us a greater appreciation of some of the protections we do have in the states (what?!?!? 7 year olds shouldn't be responsible for putting on the fireworks show for the adults?!?!?!?!)
The culmination of the fireworks was on New Year's Eve. The tradition here is to set off fireworks at midnight. Here's a short video taken by our friend to give you an idea of what it was like:
It felt a bit like a war zone, but it was pretty amazing to see from way up on the hill. So, that's fireworks in Venezuela. Can't wait to see what they're like for independence day here. Hoping you had a wonderful Christmas and wishing you a happy new year!
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