Caraca ( spelled how its pronounced)
...where have all the buhoneros gone....
long time passing...ok so a buhoneros are the street vendors that set up tables and tents and sell all kinds of things, ropa, trinkets, undies aka, interiors. Now they are gone. It is the strangest thing. Caracas is so barren without them. The streets are manageable to walk and more calm yet I am confused about where they went. I know it has been an ongoing battle with residents and the government and these vendors and they have been told to leave the streets before but the authorities have really followed through this time and I wonder if the vendors will return and how long it will take. Personally I miss the added chaos and options of goodies that are normally cheaper than other stores and often bizarre and unique. I cant imagine the amount of people this has put out of work and how they are surviving now. It would have made an interesting side story of documenting Venezuela and now they are gone. I guess I feel a little bad about the whole thing.
so back in Caracas for several days before we head to Margarita island for our last beachy sunny week until June! I am kind of coping with the climate realities in NY but all I say in Spanish to anyone that will listen is how cold and snowy and terrible the climate is in my hometown and how I want to stay in bright and warm south America. So those Spanish terms and expressions I am now terrific at because I have been saying it several times a day as the time to return nears.
The last couple days I have spent networking and planning and at bolivarian university. I just figured out their semester system here. The fall semester starts mid Oct and runs until the end of March. That is when we are aiming to come back. A little sooner than I had thought I was thinking January started a new semester. Either way they are the best months to miss in NY! Unless your nostalgic about foliage or snow, which clearly I am not. 80 degrees and sunny is the only climate I need. OK here I go about weather. Its genetic, right mom?
So the idea is to come and teach ASL and co-create the future interpreting program, but it sounds like I could also be interpreting for deaf who want to take English here, tutor in English and teach Venezuelan sign language. Luz Martin the director who is coordinating this has many ideas for me and lots of energy. My friend Ronald, whom I met randomly on the metro during the world social forum, who I will be primarily working with to create the interpreting program is responsible to for structuring 3 different degree programs. One for interpreters, teachers of the deaf and teacher assistants. He is great at details and organizing and we figured out today we balance each other great! he needs to help me focus my ideas and bring them to fruition and I need to help him multitask! I was startled to learn today he cant walk and talk at the same time. Imagine! We argued for a long time about the validity of signing and talking at the same time. I only adamantly advocate that if its about inclusion and if that is the only way to include deaf folks who are present. he refuses to do that, at the exclusion of the deaf because he wont sign. so I end up interpreting for the Deaf Venezuelans. strange. His reason is signing and talking pollutes his pure LSV and that the deaf Venezuelans will criticize him if he begins to incorporate too much Spanish language structure and not pure sign structure. So I told him to sign instead of talk English with me and he wouldn't. so I kept referring to our deaf friend saying she was left out if he didn't sign. It brought out many differences in our perspective and I explained in the states an interpreter would never only talk and not sign at a lunch date where there was a deaf friend. They would all only sign or simultaneously sign and talk. Then I was able tease Ronald that it was really his inability to multitask that kept him from doing both, not some grand philosophy. Too many details for the readers here but maybe a few interpreters out there will think its interesting. I actually noticed one deaf friend ask Ronald yesterday, refereing to me "she signs and talks at the same time and we can understand why cant you?" So it brings up a few differences and I like the intersection of challenging discourse around these different topics, I think it will create new things.
As we were leaving the Bolivarian university today Global Vision, the right wing media here that backed the coup, was interviewing people leaving the campus. My friend Ronald was charged by a reporter and her camera guy and she asked "are you a socialisto" and then preceded to ask Ronald what he thought about Chavez's recent comments that Jesus was a socialist like Che Guevara. So Ronald said yes he agreed if that Jesus was a socialist if that meant treating people more fairly and not discriminating against them. I was so close to saying "soy una socialists de EEUU, Y yo Odio bush." Then I didn't, and it was too bad.
well, I am off to the great yoga studio in "Caraca."
yo hablo caraqueno! smile
love to all
...where have all the buhoneros gone....
long time passing...ok so a buhoneros are the street vendors that set up tables and tents and sell all kinds of things, ropa, trinkets, undies aka, interiors. Now they are gone. It is the strangest thing. Caracas is so barren without them. The streets are manageable to walk and more calm yet I am confused about where they went. I know it has been an ongoing battle with residents and the government and these vendors and they have been told to leave the streets before but the authorities have really followed through this time and I wonder if the vendors will return and how long it will take. Personally I miss the added chaos and options of goodies that are normally cheaper than other stores and often bizarre and unique. I cant imagine the amount of people this has put out of work and how they are surviving now. It would have made an interesting side story of documenting Venezuela and now they are gone. I guess I feel a little bad about the whole thing.
so back in Caracas for several days before we head to Margarita island for our last beachy sunny week until June! I am kind of coping with the climate realities in NY but all I say in Spanish to anyone that will listen is how cold and snowy and terrible the climate is in my hometown and how I want to stay in bright and warm south America. So those Spanish terms and expressions I am now terrific at because I have been saying it several times a day as the time to return nears.
The last couple days I have spent networking and planning and at bolivarian university. I just figured out their semester system here. The fall semester starts mid Oct and runs until the end of March. That is when we are aiming to come back. A little sooner than I had thought I was thinking January started a new semester. Either way they are the best months to miss in NY! Unless your nostalgic about foliage or snow, which clearly I am not. 80 degrees and sunny is the only climate I need. OK here I go about weather. Its genetic, right mom?
So the idea is to come and teach ASL and co-create the future interpreting program, but it sounds like I could also be interpreting for deaf who want to take English here, tutor in English and teach Venezuelan sign language. Luz Martin the director who is coordinating this has many ideas for me and lots of energy. My friend Ronald, whom I met randomly on the metro during the world social forum, who I will be primarily working with to create the interpreting program is responsible to for structuring 3 different degree programs. One for interpreters, teachers of the deaf and teacher assistants. He is great at details and organizing and we figured out today we balance each other great! he needs to help me focus my ideas and bring them to fruition and I need to help him multitask! I was startled to learn today he cant walk and talk at the same time. Imagine! We argued for a long time about the validity of signing and talking at the same time. I only adamantly advocate that if its about inclusion and if that is the only way to include deaf folks who are present. he refuses to do that, at the exclusion of the deaf because he wont sign. so I end up interpreting for the Deaf Venezuelans. strange. His reason is signing and talking pollutes his pure LSV and that the deaf Venezuelans will criticize him if he begins to incorporate too much Spanish language structure and not pure sign structure. So I told him to sign instead of talk English with me and he wouldn't. so I kept referring to our deaf friend saying she was left out if he didn't sign. It brought out many differences in our perspective and I explained in the states an interpreter would never only talk and not sign at a lunch date where there was a deaf friend. They would all only sign or simultaneously sign and talk. Then I was able tease Ronald that it was really his inability to multitask that kept him from doing both, not some grand philosophy. Too many details for the readers here but maybe a few interpreters out there will think its interesting. I actually noticed one deaf friend ask Ronald yesterday, refereing to me "she signs and talks at the same time and we can understand why cant you?" So it brings up a few differences and I like the intersection of challenging discourse around these different topics, I think it will create new things.
As we were leaving the Bolivarian university today Global Vision, the right wing media here that backed the coup, was interviewing people leaving the campus. My friend Ronald was charged by a reporter and her camera guy and she asked "are you a socialisto" and then preceded to ask Ronald what he thought about Chavez's recent comments that Jesus was a socialist like Che Guevara. So Ronald said yes he agreed if that Jesus was a socialist if that meant treating people more fairly and not discriminating against them. I was so close to saying "soy una socialists de EEUU, Y yo Odio bush." Then I didn't, and it was too bad.
well, I am off to the great yoga studio in "Caraca."
yo hablo caraqueno! smile
love to all
posted by DAZ at 2:09 PM
1 comments
