Day 8
Monday, September 1, 2008
I was surprised to be woken up at 7:55 AM and told that at 8 AM we’d be going to the conference office. My understanding was that we wouldn’t be going there until Tuesday! I hadn’t showered since Sunday at 6 AM so I hopped in the shower anyways, thinking I’d take a taxi if I needed to. I got ready, and got to the lobby at about 8:30 and most everyone was just chillin’, waiting for the rides to come. Phew!
Eventually we made it to la misión (the SDA conference office) and had our breakfast. I think it was arepas and guava juice. I can’t seem to remember though. We had a worship service and went over that night’s sermon. Karen told us not to preach the 2300 Day prophecy sermon that we had scheduled for that night, but I raised my hand and commented that it was the very thing my church members were looking forward to hearing. She said it was up to us.
After our meeting at la misión, we stopped by the hotel to drop off our stuff and a group of us went to see Sambil, the local mall. I was a little hesitant to, but said I could go so long as we were back by 3 pm so that I could prepare my sermon. Stacy, BJ, Lizeth, Ana, Linda, Greg, Peters (a translator), Yónatan (one of Lizeth’s church’s youth) and Leidy (pronounced “Lady”, another youth from Lizeth’s church) and I hopped on a few taxis and went to the Sambil. The mall is quite nice! It’s surprisingly beautiful, compared to the other buildings and stores around here. The entrance has a really high ceiling and a set of escalators going down to the first floor, one on either side of this round pool with strings that looked like streams of water coming down from a circular pipe near the ceiling. Everything looked very clear and clean. A lot of the stores were American brands, and everything was VERY PRICEY! We went in an Adidas store and found that they charged 230,00 Bolívares Fuertes (about $100) for a pair of shoes. How could people here afford that? We went to Moose, which looked just like Abercrombie and Fitch, and found that their stuff was also overpriced. 160,00 BsF for a t-shirt (about $70). Whoa. We then went to one of the “discount stores” and found that their stuff was still really pricey, except for their 50% off racks, which were nearly empty.
A note about Venezuelan currency: In January of this year they strengthened their currency by a factor of a thousand. They now use the Bolívar Fuerte, which is worth a thousand Bolívares. So 1.000,00 Bs is equivalent to 1,00 BsF. Another thing is, they switch their commas and periods (relative to our way of doing things) when writing numbers in South America. You may have noticed that already as I wrote the numbers earlier :). We had our money changed for 1 dollar to 3,40 Bolívares, but the typical exchange rate is 1 dollar to 2,20 Bolívares.
So we finally made it to the super discount store, the discount of all discounts, and it had great prices :). We found some t-shirt and shorts that only cost 10 Bolívares. Sweet deal! We found some HILARIOUS knock-off clothing lines, like “PRoxy” (Roxy), “Hallinger” (Hollister), “Denim Republic” (Banana Republic), and several others. They used the same fonts and styles as their mother brands. Good stuff. I went on the hunt for one of those knock-off shirts for myself, but I wasn’t able to find any that I really liked. The best ones were small girl sizes. Oh well.
We then found a bowling alley in the mall, and a number of us wanted to play. Greg, Stacy, Yónatan, Leidy and I played while the others went back to the food court to get some lunch. They put our names in the system for us, and they spelled Stacy’s name as “Stheisy”. LOL! She wanted a picture of that, so I took one for her :). The first game Stacy came in first with 119, Yónatan in second with 108, Greg in third with 91, Leidy in fourth with 88, and I came in last with 87. I was just a smidgeon behind Stacy during the beginning of the game, but I started getting some bad bowls in, so Greg started giving me advice (although he was in last place at the time). For some reason I was getting a little irritated by him playing his harmonica and talking a lot, and my bowling got worse. By the second game Stacy started giving me advice too, which was honest advice, but it only got me frustrated because I wasn’t quite able to follow it and slipped up in other areas as I improved in the areas that she and Greg told me about. Thankfully, the rest of the group came back, and BJ had wanted to bowl, so I let him bowl the second half of our second game. Leidy ended up winning the second round, but Stacy still won overall. As we were returning our stuff at the front desk, the power went out and it was nearly pitch black except for one little emergency light they had on. We’d finished just in time! Well, it was almost 2 pm, so this was a good time to head back :).
There was a line outside the mall to wait for taxis. A lot of people were evacuating the mall, so it was a bit of a line to get a taxi. When we finally got to the front of the line, we bid Yónatan and Leidy farewell with a hug and cheek kiss, respectively (just like in Argentina) and Greg, Stacy, Peters and I hopped in a taxi. We made it back to the hotel just in time for lunch, and then I went to my room to work on my sermon. Sean was practicing his while I was editing mine. We were preparing the 2300 Day Prophecy sermon. I needed a break at some point and really wanted to call Donna for her birthday. So I did. She didn’t answer, so I left her a message. I then proceeded to call Gaby, who I also left a message for. I then tried getting a hold of Marshal. My first guess was through Nazia, but I had no luck there. I then called Lindsey, and she told me that he was at home, and proceeded to give me their home phone number. I called his home and started leaving a message, but joy of joys, Marshal picked up the phone! We talked for a good while . Then I called Yvonne and left a message.
I can’t begin to remember the rest of the day. I’m dreadfully behind in my journals. I think I’ll just be extremely brief from now on.
I was surprised to be woken up at 7:55 AM and told that at 8 AM we’d be going to the conference office. My understanding was that we wouldn’t be going there until Tuesday! I hadn’t showered since Sunday at 6 AM so I hopped in the shower anyways, thinking I’d take a taxi if I needed to. I got ready, and got to the lobby at about 8:30 and most everyone was just chillin’, waiting for the rides to come. Phew!
Eventually we made it to la misión (the SDA conference office) and had our breakfast. I think it was arepas and guava juice. I can’t seem to remember though. We had a worship service and went over that night’s sermon. Karen told us not to preach the 2300 Day prophecy sermon that we had scheduled for that night, but I raised my hand and commented that it was the very thing my church members were looking forward to hearing. She said it was up to us.
After our meeting at la misión, we stopped by the hotel to drop off our stuff and a group of us went to see Sambil, the local mall. I was a little hesitant to, but said I could go so long as we were back by 3 pm so that I could prepare my sermon. Stacy, BJ, Lizeth, Ana, Linda, Greg, Peters (a translator), Yónatan (one of Lizeth’s church’s youth) and Leidy (pronounced “Lady”, another youth from Lizeth’s church) and I hopped on a few taxis and went to the Sambil. The mall is quite nice! It’s surprisingly beautiful, compared to the other buildings and stores around here. The entrance has a really high ceiling and a set of escalators going down to the first floor, one on either side of this round pool with strings that looked like streams of water coming down from a circular pipe near the ceiling. Everything looked very clear and clean. A lot of the stores were American brands, and everything was VERY PRICEY! We went in an Adidas store and found that they charged 230,00 Bolívares Fuertes (about $100) for a pair of shoes. How could people here afford that? We went to Moose, which looked just like Abercrombie and Fitch, and found that their stuff was also overpriced. 160,00 BsF for a t-shirt (about $70). Whoa. We then went to one of the “discount stores” and found that their stuff was still really pricey, except for their 50% off racks, which were nearly empty.
A note about Venezuelan currency: In January of this year they strengthened their currency by a factor of a thousand. They now use the Bolívar Fuerte, which is worth a thousand Bolívares. So 1.000,00 Bs is equivalent to 1,00 BsF. Another thing is, they switch their commas and periods (relative to our way of doing things) when writing numbers in South America. You may have noticed that already as I wrote the numbers earlier :). We had our money changed for 1 dollar to 3,40 Bolívares, but the typical exchange rate is 1 dollar to 2,20 Bolívares.
So we finally made it to the super discount store, the discount of all discounts, and it had great prices :). We found some t-shirt and shorts that only cost 10 Bolívares. Sweet deal! We found some HILARIOUS knock-off clothing lines, like “PRoxy” (Roxy), “Hallinger” (Hollister), “Denim Republic” (Banana Republic), and several others. They used the same fonts and styles as their mother brands. Good stuff. I went on the hunt for one of those knock-off shirts for myself, but I wasn’t able to find any that I really liked. The best ones were small girl sizes. Oh well.
We then found a bowling alley in the mall, and a number of us wanted to play. Greg, Stacy, Yónatan, Leidy and I played while the others went back to the food court to get some lunch. They put our names in the system for us, and they spelled Stacy’s name as “Stheisy”. LOL! She wanted a picture of that, so I took one for her :). The first game Stacy came in first with 119, Yónatan in second with 108, Greg in third with 91, Leidy in fourth with 88, and I came in last with 87. I was just a smidgeon behind Stacy during the beginning of the game, but I started getting some bad bowls in, so Greg started giving me advice (although he was in last place at the time). For some reason I was getting a little irritated by him playing his harmonica and talking a lot, and my bowling got worse. By the second game Stacy started giving me advice too, which was honest advice, but it only got me frustrated because I wasn’t quite able to follow it and slipped up in other areas as I improved in the areas that she and Greg told me about. Thankfully, the rest of the group came back, and BJ had wanted to bowl, so I let him bowl the second half of our second game. Leidy ended up winning the second round, but Stacy still won overall. As we were returning our stuff at the front desk, the power went out and it was nearly pitch black except for one little emergency light they had on. We’d finished just in time! Well, it was almost 2 pm, so this was a good time to head back :).
There was a line outside the mall to wait for taxis. A lot of people were evacuating the mall, so it was a bit of a line to get a taxi. When we finally got to the front of the line, we bid Yónatan and Leidy farewell with a hug and cheek kiss, respectively (just like in Argentina) and Greg, Stacy, Peters and I hopped in a taxi. We made it back to the hotel just in time for lunch, and then I went to my room to work on my sermon. Sean was practicing his while I was editing mine. We were preparing the 2300 Day Prophecy sermon. I needed a break at some point and really wanted to call Donna for her birthday. So I did. She didn’t answer, so I left her a message. I then proceeded to call Gaby, who I also left a message for. I then tried getting a hold of Marshal. My first guess was through Nazia, but I had no luck there. I then called Lindsey, and she told me that he was at home, and proceeded to give me their home phone number. I called his home and started leaving a message, but joy of joys, Marshal picked up the phone! We talked for a good while . Then I called Yvonne and left a message.
I can’t begin to remember the rest of the day. I’m dreadfully behind in my journals. I think I’ll just be extremely brief from now on.