Of all of the places i thought i'd never visit in my life, the Military School was definitely one of them. I come from a long line of military chiefs and i swore that i would break the cycle once it was my turn to decide what to do with my life. Not that i was forced, of course, but family traditions isn't something that easy to avoid.
Instead of me, it was my little brother who decided to join the military forces. Here in Venezuela, this is one of the most well paid careers, since the government wants to befriend them and money is the friend of all. He didn't because of the money, though our economic situation wasn't on its highest moment. He did it because he thought that being a military would give him some sense of honour -or something like that.
Mine is a family of four: my mom, the pillar of the house; myself, the big brother; my sister, a fabulous singer who just hasn't been discovered yet and him, the little one -who happens to be taller than me, haha.
Anyway, i got distracted of the main theme. As he wanted to stand out in our little but lovable family, he joined the miltary against the desires of my mother and of course, myself. Yet, we helped him to achieved what he wanted. And so, he left to San Tomé, a small town downstate in where nothing seems to happen there.
We spent a month without seeing him, until one night we received a phone call. It was him. He was "fine", just had to go to the hospital because he had threw up twice. Of course, we were worried since he has never been all by himself and he's just 19, but he told us that he was fine and that soon we would be able to visit him.
The day came, and my mother, my sister and me left to San Tomé. Trust me, traveling in a country like Venezuela isn't a piece of cake. We first had to go on a bus who took us to El Tigre, a neighbor town to San Tomé. It's a little bigger than the latter, but equally boring and quite different of our hometown since it's located deep down in the country, in a place called "La Mesa de Guanipa" (Guanipa's Table) a vast, almost infinite plain with skies bluer than the sea we're used to. It is indeed a beautiful sight.
Once we got there, we came upon to my mom's best friend who happened to live there. She said that her house was ours and we could stay there as long as we wanted (Didn't last that long, though, since food in Venezuela is quite scarce and it was kinda shameful (?) to be there and eat their food.
However, we agreed and left our bags in her house. Almost without saying goodbye, we were on our way to San Tomé.
It's a short road from El Tigre to San Tomé. Less than 20 minutes. Still, we had to take a cab since we didn't know nothing about those two towns. Expensive, but we had no choice.
We arrived to San Tomé, finally, after a four hours long journey from our hometown, Puerto La Cruz. The three of us were tired and i really wanted to pee (LOL).
(That is a Mosque, i really liked its simple but beautiful design)
We were longing to get to the School, thinking it would be such an amazing place. When the cab driver told us we were there, we saw...
THE QUEUE TO ENTER (I didn't take a picture of the queue, but of the upcoming storm rising upon us)
Finally, after waiting for like an eternity (actually it was just 45 minutes) we entered the School.
Do you guys see the shape of the clouds? Beautiful, isn't it?
My brother was skeletal, looking like a dead man, like a zombie. The truth was he had vomited eight (8) times and had a fever. My mom cried when she saw him and i said that he should get the hell outta there and come home, since he didn't have to be suffering in that place.
The school had a different weather than the rest of the town. It was almost like it had its own mind. It was sunny and windy, like a desert. All of my brother's partners were equally skinny or even worse.
After we shared and laughed and cried as a family, the visit was over and we had to go, leaving my brother to keep passing through hell just for his stubbornness. He got really sick two months later due to the bad conditions of the water they were forced to drink. Soon after that, he quit his obstinacy and returned home where he could be safe and healthy.
I strongly recommend that those who want to become a part of the military forces in your country better think twice.