I have to be very careful what I write here. I could get in trouble with the Venezuelan Government for posting this. I will stick to simple FACTS of living here. In this post I will talk about FOOD.
- 5 Years ago i enjoyed fruit salads and oatmeal for breakfast. Now I do one and sometimes two meals per day.
This is me:
We eat mostly veggies which is what I can get cheap, home made cheese, and home made grounded corn dough.
There's a black market for food. Since it's hard to get it, you can get things from people who make hours long food lines to buy a kilo of rice, or from people who import them from other countries. But those are expensive choices, considering minimum salary here is about $23 a month (using the black market dollar as measurment).
Sugar in the black market is about Bs.10,000 ( about $1.17) per kilo, but most people don't eat sugar anymore or they just eat half or less than what they used to consume. Just a couple of days ago someone called me to ask if she could get a spoon of sugar, becasue she couldn't afford to buy any. This is why you see things like this happen (sugar truck getting looted):
One icecream could cost more than what you make in one day of work.
A lot of people are anemic, so am I.
Most people I talk to say they have lost weight (some dramatically, maybe around 40 to 60 pounds).
It's not uncommon to see clean-dressed people (not homeless) eating out of garbage cans, or fighting over who eats from the garbarge first:
There are many other facts, I have to be careful with what I say and stick to facts.
If you upvote my post, I will write the nitty-gritty of what it's like living here. Do we really eat our pets? Do people chase pigeons to eat them? Do venezuelans eat pink flamingos out of hunger? and other things like: What is it like for Venezuelan moms who lose their kids while protesting? Who is Leopoldo Lopez and what people really think of him? or any other topic. Just ask.
I am a venzuelan living in one of the top 10 most dangerous cities in the world.