Wednesday April 2.
The Venezuelans were up late talking loudly, same as the night before, so it was late by the time I got to sleep. Still I thought I would wake up early. When I looked at my watch and saw 9:30 I was shocked. But there is very little else to do here, it really didn’t matter. I had some work to get sent off to the office, and some emails to respond to so I settled into work. By noon I was finished with all that. Breakfast was yogurt and a blood orange, bread and a few cups of tea. I have some pre-made lasagna I will heat up later on for a late lunch.
Turns out I skipped lunch completely, and for dinner I chose to warm up some pre-cooked chicken and potatoes, also from the COOP, and I made myself a nice caprese salad. I love tomatoes in Italy! They are so sweet. Dinner was good.
By today everyone is warming up to each other in here.. it’s a mini United Nations. Everyone is bored silly, but we have no choice. We’ve been making a list of how this compares to incarceration, and we’ve all decided when we get sprung from here we will be model citizens forever. We are not liking giving up some of our freedoms one bit. It’s a huge eye opener to get a feel for what a controlled existence must be like. Luisa, the mother from Venezuela, says she likes her freedoms. She is also making great attempts to sing “I Will Survive”, with a very strong accent and she can’t quite get out the word Survive.. but we know what she means! She has a great sense of humor.
We’ve had interesting political discussions. Everyone is very keen on knowing about the upcoming election in the US. It’s been so educational for me to learn how the world views Americans, and how much they depend on us being a world leader. It is clearly a bit scary to them, they feel we have lost our place as leaders. I am not happy hearing it, but it is reality. Also interesting to note, unanimously these women feel Hilary Clinton is not the right choice for the next president, they all feel stongly that the only “HOPE” is Obama. Now isn’t that an eye-opener. Hope was their word—and it is the word Obama himself uses as his cornerstone in the campaign.
Right before dinner time Andreas, Luisa’s daughter from Venezuela who is not on lockdown with us and can get out, came in the door. She has some family about 50 km from here in Rimini, and she had gone there by train the previous day. When she arrived, I was in the kitchen. I said “Welcome home, Andreas”.. and she says back “Karen, I missed you!”.
I realize at that moment that I am lucky. Yes, the situation is bleak, but I am lucky. This could have been so much worse. Lucky that this bunch of people who have come together quite accidently are exactly who they are. These are bright, strong, educated, women, who fortunately come packaged with a sense of humor similar to mine.
When 7pm rolled around tonight, I had my coat on ready to run out the door, only to discover that a nasty thunderstorm was about to let loose. It was cold and rainy. I stayed in. And no polizia. End of Day 3.
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