Our Last Chronicle
7th December, 2002
Written by Helen James
After our robbery, we had not contemplated leaving Venezuela, but were thinking more about possibly moving or securing our house better. The people in our little village were horrified by the attack and said that there had never been an incident like this in Adicora before.
As fate would have it, a job offer back in the US came to Mark from Raytheon around November, and because it was such a good offer, we decided to take it.
This also coincided with a string of national strikes which were being planned over an indefinite period. We packed and shipped our house contents and booked a flight for December 13th, 2002 to leave. The strike was affecting Paraguana sooner than we thought and a week before we were planning to leave, they had already started cancelling flights to Aruba because of petrol shortages. We took a chance and left for the airport a week early on December 7th hoping to be able to leave with our tickets for the following week. We had our large dog in a kennel and our cat in a cat bag as well. The plane is very small and fortunately they let us on with the animals.
Travelling with the animals wasn't easy because we were going to the US via Aruba. Aruba has a very strict animal policy on the island and under no circumstances are animals to be brought there or even taken through there in transit. This required a lot of emailing back and forth before we left with the Aruban Airport Authority. We filled all the vaccination requirements and had all the paperwork for the animals in order on the date we planned to leave and the AAA finally gave us special dispensation to travel through their island with the animals, with the condition that they AND us don't leave the airport. We had a 3 hour wait for our US flight and we sat the entire time with 2 drugged animals in the airport lounge. In Venezuela they wouldn't let us transport the animals without tranquilising them, but on Delta airlines in Aruba, they didn't want the animals drugged..sheesh. The 3 hour wait allowed most of the tranquilisers to wear off and Vinnie was put in baggage while Sooner was allowed to travel with me in the cabin. I cannot praise Delta Airlines enough for they way they helped us with the animal transport. They performed above and beyond their duties as an airline to just help us get home with our animals. It was a long flight from Aruba to Kansas City and we arrived around 10 or 11pm. Our 2 tropical animals got off that plane into a MO winter and it was actually quite comical watching their first reactions to cold!
We spent time with Mark's sisters in MO and started to plan our next move. Because the new job would entail installing new radars at various airports across the US, we decided to purchase a 5th wheel and truck. I will save these stories for our new US Chronicles!
Our time in Venezuela was filled with mixed emotions. We had made a couple of lasting friendships and there were a few people that we cared deeply about and will genuinely miss. As for the country itself...no, we don't miss it. We don't miss the corruption and incompetence and disorder. I feel sorry for the people of Venezuela that have to live under a tyrannical fool like Chavez. You are a rich nation and you deserve to live like decent human beings, but you are not. He is stealing from all of you and forcing you to live unemployed and in poverty. I feel sorry for the people that are too blind to realise this and lack the courage to do something about it and change your lives to what you deserve. You will never do it while Chavez is in power. Goodbye Venezuela!
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