Some meetings and some pictures

A few pictures:
This is downtown with the mountains in back

This is the Contemporary Art Museum's garden sculptures, with mosque in background

And this says: Each day 50,000 children die of hunger due to capitalism. Who said that capitalism is pretty?

These last two days have included even more adventures here. Two brief observances-Venezuela, in case you didn't know, is on its own time zone. Chavez standard time is halfway between New York and Chicago time, or one half hour off. There is no daylight savings time, so it will be the same time all year. Also, I thought it was silly how the houses I have seen had huge extra water tanks in case "the water shut off." Apparently, though, it does that rather frequently, as the city has a water shortage. (At first I assumed it was just our apartment building). So those extra tanks came in handy.

Today I ventured to the offices of the FESNOJIV (the orchestra foundation) because I wanted to get started right away on meeting people. They have offices in a huge and modern tower in downtown's Parque Central, which of course is not a park of green, but of concrete and shopping centers. Upon arriving, I was shuffled between the first and 18th floor a few times before waiting for a woman to show up for an hour to be rudely told that I was actually in the wrong office. I have also realized that many of the contacts I have here are people from different FESNOJIV branches who do not know each other. I guess I didn't expect getting everyone to help to be easy, so I planned for getting told to go elsewhere a lot and bring books for waiting. However, I think I finally made an appointment with the right person. I guess I'll find out when I go back. I also have some other good contacts of musicians and professors, most of whom are just returning from vacation.