My 2020: Just a normal day in Cumaná

Greetings, everyone
This is my entry for @anomadsoul’s #My2020:JustaNormalDay contest. Details here

_{For two weeks now, this has become the area where I spend a good part of my days}

For a year I had been unemployed. I renounced my possition as a university professor last year after a long deterioration process that made teaching unviable, dangerous, unprofitable, and utterly humiliating ($6/month). All this time I have been working as a freelance translator and teaching a private class here and there. A couple of weeks ago, I started teaching at Traduce, a local Language Academy whose owner is one of the few people I can call my friend, the most experienced and knowlegable translator I know. It has taken me a while to get used to schedules and signing in and out, but I like the job and the new experience with kids of all ages.

_{Traduce. Cumaná's oldest Language Academy}

Fridays are my easy day. I have only one class, an individualized training for the TOEFL test. Here's how my day went.

5:30 Waking up

Shortly after I wake up I usually check my phone and Steemd, of course.

Then I go to the computer but usually I find it impossible to work on it the first hour of the day.

5:50 Help with breakfast

Since I quit my job I have ben more involved with domestic activities, for obvious reasons. So, now I wake up before my wife, who teaches at an Elementary School, and have breakfast ready for her and our daughter. They go to their places and I stay working on the computer or Steemit until is time to do something else.

6:00 Breakfast

Our breakfast have been very basic and monotonous for years now. We have only what we can afford, which is usually bread and cheese. We do our best to always have coffee and sugar. That makes our breakfast more dignifying.

We have to deal with these little ones first. We give them part of our food since pet food is very, very expensive. As always, Negrito is the loudest of all. He is very vocal about his food on time.

6:15 to 7:40 Work on Steemit

My wife usually takes her breakfast in a lunch box and eats it at school. Today, we had breakfast before she left. Once she and my daughter leave, I start checking my email and Steemit. I do my customary upvoting and commenting early in the morning.

7:45 Head to Work

I usually walk all the way to work. It is about a dozen blocks from home. In the last days, since I've been having some toothache, I have been taking a car up to the end of their route, which leaves me just three blocks away. But today no cars were passing and I was running late.

I took Sarmiento St all the way to Plaza Bermudez, then turn left to go through downtown Bermudez Av

Early in the morning we do not get so many peple or traffic, but it is equally hectic.

After I get off the car, this is the section I have to walk to get to the Academy.

This bridge has been under repair for more than two years. It is one of those emblematic works of the revolution that show why they should not govern anywhere anymore.

A very famous dance academy, falling appart

8:00 to 9:30 Teach

I arrived some minutes past the hour, but my students had not arrived yet. She is a young girl who has been admitted into a Community College in Florida and she needs to prepare herself to take the TOEFL test

After I finished today's class, I had to go to the dentist. I have been having toothaches for the last week or so. I tried at a Red Cross "clinic", but even though it would have been way cheaper, the insalubrity of the place, along with the poorly maintained equipment and the dirty gloves of the doctor (which she did not change when she saw me) told me that I should not go back in there. Thus, I arranged with my new boss that he would pay for the dental expenses and then deduct it from my future paychecks. I won't see any pay for the next month or so.

9:30 Go to dentist

I walked from the Academy to the nearest bus stop. I couldhave walked to the dentist, but I had already walked plenty.

Right in front you can see the Catedral, one of the most important religious buildings in our state. During the Independence War, troops loyal to the Spanish crown trapped dozens of people in this curch and butchered them. Most people in town, especially the younger generations ignore the bloody history of their own town.

I took a bus right after I arrived at the bus stop and I considered myself lucky since I got a seat

The old lady you see just walking down the hall got a seat too.

9:50: Arrived at dentist

The dentist's office is at La Copita, a former beautiful office building that despite recent repairs is in a state of abandonment. Most businesses have closed, most doctors have left the country.

This dentist office looks decent

I did not have the chance to take pictures of what she did, but she was very professional. She repaired the hurting tooth and hopefully I will be better once the inflamation is gone.

11:00 Left dentist

I took a bus from La Copita to a couple of blocks away from home

I walked some three blocks. It was very hot

11:40 Got home

11:46. Went to store to get some chives for lunch. My mother-in-law was preparing beans with pork ribs.

12:00 Back to Steemit

At this time of the day I usually check Steemit again, this time with company

If you remember Delilah, she has been growing slowly but steadily and developing all kinds of cute habits.

1:30 Lunch

2:20. Time for a short nap.

We have to travel tomorrow (it's Saturday already, so, later) to surprise my daughter Anna, who turned 12, so we’ll take the afternoon to finish all arrangements.

No nap at all. In between Steemiting, I had to clean the patio, pick up the clothes that we washed yesterday (no dryer, so we have to dry our clothes on cords or wires in the patio).

4:00-5:00 Steemit.

Upvoting and commenting other posts from @acropolis’s #nanonarrative contest.

5:00-5:30 Pack for trip.

6:00 Fill the water containers for the refrigerator.

Our tap water is not apt for human consumption. It must be boiled or filtered. Our filter is too old and broken. Replacing it is too expensive, so now we buy potable water in 20 liter-containers. It has become part of our routine now to go buy one of those every two days and fill up the jars we put in the refrigerator every afternoon.

7:00. Help my wife make dinner (arepas and fried eggs).

7:30 My friend and boss came over to drop something. We talked for more than 30 mins.

8:15 Dinner

8:45 Twitter.

I got the habit now of twittering. It's getting boring, though

9:00 Prepare post

And now that I look at the time I realized it took me 4 hours to get this done (it takes a while to upload mages, let alone videos).

It's passed midnight. We talked to Anna already and congratulated her on her birthday. She was too sleepy. She won't probably remember that later.

And this is it. Thank you for your time and attention. Sorry it went so long

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