Posts
It's been too long since I last wrote! I meant to write a post before Alex arrived for a visit in February, knowing I'd be busy once he got here, but I didn't get it done. The biggest news since then has been recent--the death of Venezuelan presiden Hugo Chavez. I was completely surprised, as I didn't expect them to actually announce it. There's plenty of speculation that he's been dead for a while. The news came about 3 hours after news hit that two Air Force attaches at the Caracas embassy had been PNGed for conspiring to kill the president. PNG= persona non grata ie. "you're no longer welcome here." The US Ambassador to Venezuela was PNGed before I ever got there ( I think it was in 2009), and we never had an ambassador while I was there. The accusations against our people echoed an offhanded comment Chavez had made a few months earlier during one of his talks, suggesting that the US had come up with a way to cause cancer in people and they were aiming at South American presidents.
Venezuela is now looking at new presidential elections on April 14. The two main candidates will be Chavez's VP (and now interim president) Maduro and the previous opposition candidate, Capriles.
Alex came to visit for two weeks in February, and while I had to go to work while he was here, I did let some of my studying slide, and we had presidents day off, so we were able to do some fun stuff. I accompanied him several times on photography outings to some of the landmarks in DC and we also made a day trip to Great Falls national park where we almost froze to death, but got some good shots (I can't wait for warm weather!) We also had the chance to get together with several friends we both worked with in Caracas who have recently returned for training or jobs in DC.
I have continued to struggle with energy levels and difficulty with digestion. In January, I did a comprehensive blood tests for food intolerances, which gave me several things to focus on. After cutting out the things that were causing a reaction, I did feel some better, but not even close to normal. While maintaining that diet (my diet would seem very weird to you right now!), I have also started to look into treatment for a parasite I was diagnosed with in October 2012. It's apparently one that researchers don't know a lot about or understand very well, and there are not very effective treatments available. The best place in the world to get treatment for it is in Australia, based on their rate of success in eliminating the parasite. Find more info if you're interested here. So while I'm trying to work on in now, I just might have to take advantage of Fiji's proximity to Australia when I move in order to find relief.
It's hard to believe that Hindi training is nearing the end; I have almost two months left, but several of my classmates will be testing out this month, as they will have to start other training before leaving for their posts. It's nice that we've reached a point of not learning so much new stuff and now practicing speaking for fluency (but hard to accept that my language abilities will be limited to what I know now!). Because Hindi is classified as a "hard language" the requirement is to get to a level 2 out of 5. For world languages like Spanish and French, the requirement is a 3 out of 5. So while I've learned a lot, my abilities are still very limited, and it can be frustrating to think of how much I've worked to end up so slow and limited when I try to speak or read at a level I'm used to in English, and even in Spanish. C'est la vie in the Foreign Service though :) I'm already dreaming of what language I might get next time around.
