Learning to live in crisis

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I remember how we used to live, at breakfast it was normal to eat and sometimes leave food. Even throw it in the trash when you did not want any more. And now, now we have to survive, survive and survive. We have to fight for food as if we were camping on a trip to the forest as a band of child explorers. I remember that once I was so hungry I had to sell one of my previous computers. I had to sell a laptop by necessity. My mother and I were without food and had not eaten since the day before at noon. I felt like my stomach was roaring, everyone was going through a very difficult and critical situation. Nobody gave anything; I remember that a person answered us about buying the laptop, my heart was glad, apparently I was finally going to eat again. A soldier of the Venezuelan army arrived at our door. The man inspired us with confidence because he said he was a colonel in the state where I live. I remember that we were waiting for a direct transfer to our bank to be able to buy food once more. But no, the man told us that he could only supply a bank check.

From the hunger that we had, our eyes were blinded, apparently we had to go the next day to collect the check. We would not eat for the rest of that day either, we did not want to die of hunger in a war to survive in Venezuela. We accepted the check. And the man left quickly because he had to “travel to the capital of the country urgently.” The next day my mother went to cash the check for the money from the laptop that we just sold a day ago. I had to go to sleep without eating and had to endure the pain that came to my stomach from not having any food for 2 days. When my mother arrived at the bank, they told us that there were no funds and that the signature on the check was incorrect.

Long story short, we were robbed. And this was our first lesson in living in a country in crisis. A soldier, a soldier supposedly of the Venezuelan army. Someone we should trust to be a government worker had robbed us. I remember how I felt, and cried. I was hungry and really wanted to eat something; We had to sell my mother’s hair curling irons so I could eat. But what I learned, is that in a crisis everyone thinks of winning, even if they have to make others die.

I am surprised at the hearts of people sometimes, how could that man steal from us when he could see our need. We live in a shabby house next to others in Venezuela. I’m not ashamed of that. It is my home; But what surprises me most is that someone can be so bad as to see an 11-year-old boy hungry and his mother helpless. And to have no remorse from stealing from them in that way which is so cruel.

I have gone through situations that have left me marked for life, from the way they robbed and killed my English teacher to the way in which a 12-year-old boy has been electrocuted just by lowering mangoes to eat. Venezuela has become the place that no one wants to live, here we have to survive in a very difficult way. In a way in which every day it becomes more and more complicated to see the positives. Many have sought an exit, including suicide.

Months ago, a person threw herself from the ninth floor of the hospital in my city. I felt dismayed; I had never heard anything like it. It turns out that the person was in the difficult situation of being without medicine for her 2-year-old son who would surely die in a month. The woman found no alternative but to commit suicide. Her family never wanted to help her or pay attention to her. It has been difficult for me to think that that child for whom she killed herself also died. This country is like a game of Russian roulette, that apparently is too dark for the sight of an ordinary person. Speaking of suicides, a person close to my graduate in general mastery, wanted to commit suicide by hanging himself in his own home. Thanks to several people who were close to him, they suspected what he was about to do and saved him. This happened 2 weeks ago. The man today is still alive, but with a depression that has to be controlled by pills and psychologists.

Mother suicided unable to afford medicine

Many of their relatives felt sad, they had to take money they didn’t have to help him to get out of the situation. I understand that the situation is difficult and critical for many. They see people who should live well because they have studied hard and should be strong and yet they have wanted to die. What can you expect? All this leads me to think that Venezuela right now is not a country, it is a war zone. A place where many struggle to live, others to survive like me. The government seeks to pressure the people in some way or another. Simply stealing all the resources and not knowing how to administer anything of our land.

Writing these things in one way or another attracts thoughts of sadness in me. Remembering situations in which I have had a very bad time, I have written this article going hungry, without having breakfast, and wondering if someday I will be able to get out of this situation, me and my family, or my country.

I could say with certainty that with this desire that I have to get ahead I would be able to study everything possible, to be able to serve in everything that is possible. To work, invest, think and also progress. I really hope to progress, in one way or another. “I would be able to feed a hungry lion” they say here in Venezuela to the fact that he would be able to do anything to gain something and thus be able to learn, eat and above all live well.