This summer I am in Venezuela. In April I read on my
school’s website “Monk talking about Democracy”; without hesitation I showed up
to the presentation. He presented about an alternative socio-economic theory
called PROUT (PROgressive Utilization Theory). PROUT encourages “worker
cooperatives, self-reliant communities, environmental protection, universal
ethics and spiritual values”
(1). This interested me,
and after about two weeks of pondering it and deciding all the summer camp jobs
I was applying for were far less interesting I bought a plane ticket to
Venezuela.
So I have been here for three and half weeks and have five
more weeks to go. I am living in a cooperative house with the Monk Dada, and
seven other people composed of other volunteers, researchers, and subletters.
As I a volunteer I work 40 hours a week in exchange for room and board. The
house we are living is in the capital city, Caracas. It is on top of a hill in
a nice section of town will a great view from the roof of a barrio (ghetto) behind
us (with a big McDonalds sign on the horizon), apartment buildings and tall
city buildings in front of us, and the beginning of the Andes Mountains next to
us. Dada is a Yogic monk so there
is yoga every morning at six o’clock followed by kirtan (singing a Sanskrit
mantra) and meditation. Again there is kirtan and meditation before dinner.
So for adventures: The first day I went out into the city –
well just a couple blocks away to a shopping mall to get some post cards – I
was robbed on the way home. I only had an equivalent of five dollars, a house
key, and the post cards I had just proudly bought. It was two 16 year old boys
on a motorcycle – a common robbery situation so that one can hop off, demand
for someone’s bag and then they can hop back on the bike and weave their way
through traffic to avoid be caught. When I arrived back to the house, one of
the Venezuelan’s I am living with assured that I was ok and then said
“Beinvenidos a Venezuela!” (Welcome to Venezuela). Since then I have been using
a plastic shopping bag as my purse with my money hidden in a folded up piece of
newspaper and not going out alone.
Most of my time is spent at the house doing house chores or
working in the garden. There are 8 mango trees in the backyard that I spend a
lot of time sitting under, climbing, and eating the inevitable mangos that will
fall from them. The monk Dada is 60 and has traveled all over Europe and Asia
so I spend a lot of time listening to his adventurous travel stories as well.
One of the researchers who lives here is a student at Harvard and here on
scholarship starting his senior thesis. He also has a job writing for a left
wing Venezuelan newspaper two days a week so he’s a great source of Venezuelan
politics and news.
There are far less travelers in Venezuela than in Nicaragua.
For instance when I was out today for the whole day I think I only saw two or
three other white people and for all I know they could have been Venezuelan as
some Venezuelans have pretty light skin. In Nicaragua there was usually always
a traveler within eyesight. It’s a profound experience feeling like such an
“other”. I am stared at constantly but as soon as I smile or greet a passerby with
a “beunas” I receive a smile or a “beunas” in return.
More stories, cultural revelations, and sewn seeds to come.
Thanks for reading!
1. http://priven.org/about/about-the-institute/
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