Maria’s X-rated Birthday Party

The Other weekend , Pablo and I were invited to the birthday party of a woman who worked as a janitor at the church. Maria was turning 40 (although you wouldn’t have guessed it by the “youthful” way she dressed) and was having a party at her house to celebrate. Father Greg bought a cake and some alcohol as a gift and when we got there we discovered that it was a sex themed party. Maria had a penis pinata hanging from the middle of the room and as we entered she stuck a penis or breast shaped pin on us. We also played a very x-rated version of pin the tail on the donkey that even my cousin, a Catholic Priest, was forced into playing . What made the party even more unbelievable is that Maria’s four pre-teen and teenage daughters (the oldest of which was pregnant) and their father was there. Most of the guests got drunk and were openly joking and talking about sex even though there were children in the room. The decorations and activities where like those of a bachelorette party in the U.S. but I am told that sex-themed parties are very common here in Venezuela for many different occasions.

Food

While in Ciudad Guayana, I have had the opportunity to try many new foods. Almost everyday for breakfast, Pablo and I walk to a neighbor’s who sells empanadas out of her house. They are not the wheat flour and cheese empanadas that I am used to. Instead they have an outside shell made of corn flour and they are stuffed with shredded beef, chicken, fish, beans, plantains or cheese. Then they are deep fried. Here in Venezuela empanadas are served only at breakfast and in the evening they serve pastelitos which are the same thing as the empanadas but wheat flour is used to make the pastry like shell. Both empanadas and pastelitos are served with a mayonase based dipping sauce. Very fattening but very delicious.
Another extremely common food is arepas. Arepas are a deep fried corn bread. Sometimes they are made with yellow corn flower and are sweet. These are served with butter or cheese. Other times the arepas are made out of white corn flour and are cut open and stuffed with a variety of ingredients to make a sort of sandwich. Arepas are an extremely important staple in the Venezuelan diet because they are very cheap and easy to make, but unfortunately they have very little nutritional value so many children here are under nourished.
One thing that I have tried and liked very much are the cachapas. They are a sort of huge, thick pancake also made out of corn flour, with melted butter and cheese on top. Cachapas are usually served with some sort of meat like steak or sausage.

Religion in Ciudad Guayana

Ciudad Guayana had about 800,000 Catholics but only 44 Catholic Priests. Of those 44 priests only about 20 are Venezuelan. The rest are missionary priests form the U.S., Germany, Spain, Poland, Italy and France. Many of the lay people what more attention from the priests then the priests are capable of giving because of the huge disparity. In recent years many of the lay who want more attention from their religious leaders, have converted to Evangelicalism. There are many more Evangelist leaders then Catholic Priests in Ciudad Guayana because it is much easier to become one. Evangelist leaders only need about 6 months of training, As apposed to years of training that Catholics require, and they don’t take vows of abstinence or poverty. It is hard to say exactly how many Evangelical churches are in ciudad Guayana because many are run out of homes and even in the street. My uncle predicts that in his parish, which has one Catholic church and four chapels, there are about 50 Evangelical churches. At most of these churches you must “donate” to attend services. They even have revivals out in the parks were they will exercise people in order to rid them of evil spirits. In order to recruit people they will go door to door in the barrios and preach. They have even come to my uncles house a few times when I was sitting on the porch but Lucy, My uncle’s fierce German Shepherd, had scared them off. From What I have heard from my uncle, most Evangelicals in his area preach a more negative message saying that if you do not join them then you will go to hell.