The View from Susan's House
Today while I was at my fellow Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar friend Susan's house, we experienced a earthquake of 6.2 on the Richter scale. The weather was already quite strange and I took several videos of the clouds coming through the mountains because it reminded me of visiting a clouded forest in Mindo, Ecuador. Soon after it started pouring down rain, we were sitting in her living room/kitchen area enjoying some delicious plantain slices topped with guacamole and cheese, and everything started to shake. We sat there in shock for what seemed like an eternity and it seemed as if the floor were rippling. Everyone got up and went outside because we were safer there than in the house (just in case of anything falling on us). After a few minutes, we returned to our meal and felt a few more, much weaker, vibrations. Fortunately, there didn't seem to be much damage as a result of the strong thunderstorms and the earthquake.
In other, much more pleasant news, I had the opportunity to meet Nelly Melendez, the current secretary and 2010-2011 President-Elect from the Rotary Club Las Mercedes. Ms. Melendez is a high school teacher here in Caracas. Nelly offered to help me out with opening a bank account and choosing a room. I also met a friend of hers, Esther, a doctor at a public health clinic. She told us about her job and the problems she encounters on a daily basis. Esther commented that she has faced the same problems since she began- too many patients and too little time, as well as corruption.
Esther, Karen, Nelly, Susan at Susan's house in Hoyo de la PuertaI met Susan's "babies" (she has cats that hang out outside her house and one just gave birth a week ago) and enjoyed the view from her terrace. We looked at some photos from her and Orlando's wedding last year and ate a delicious dessert of banana bread (made from local bananas) and tea/coffee.
Susan with one of her "babies"
Orlando, Nelly, Esther, and Susan on the terrace
