Day Two: Panic Shopping

Como les mencioné ayer; hoy debía ir a comprar comida, este era un gasto para el cual no estaba preparada y nuestros ahorros se fueron en muchas cosas de navidad y tambien otras emergencias que tuvimos, es complicado, JUSTO todo esto paso cuando nos encontramos peor económicamente pero logre conseguir un préstamo de $100 y con eso pude comprar algunas cosas pero aun asi siento que no pude comprar lo suficiente, pues verán: $100 en mi país no es casi nada, de hecho aunque reviso mil veces mi factura no logro entender como gaste $100 en tan pocas cosas y sin comprar todo lo necesario.

As I mentioned yesterday, I had to go grocery shopping today. This was an expense I wasn't prepared for, and our savings were gone on a lot of Christmas things and other emergencies. It's complicated. All of this happened right when we were at our worst financially, but I managed to get a $100 loan, and with that, I was able to buy a few things. Even so, I feel like I didn't buy enough. You see, $100 in my country is practically nothing. In fact, even though I check my receipt a thousand times, I can't understand how I spent $100 on so few things and without buying everything I needed.

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Desde ayer organizamos todo para bajar temprano a comprar, por suerte, tenemos un supermercado muy cerca y solo debíamos levantarnos temprano e ir a esperar que abrieran, no es lo ideal, pero estaba segura de que las personas al saber que abriría hoy el supermercado se volverían locas y la cola seria inmensa. Aunque cuando llegué a las 6 AM vi que solo había una persona y me ilusione, pensé que todo seria normal como siempre, pero poco a poco pasaron los minutos y llegaban mas y mas personas.

Since yesterday we'd been organizing everything to go shopping early. Luckily, we have a supermarket very close by, and all we had to do was get up early and wait for it to open. It wasn't ideal, but I was sure that when people found out the supermarket was open today, they'd go crazy and the line would be enormous. Although when I arrived at 6 AM I saw there was only one person and I got my hopes up. I thought everything would be normal as usual, but little by little the minutes passed and more and more people arrived.

No tenia ni idea de lo larga que se había hecho la cola ya que había una esquina donde parecía terminar, pero cuando empezamos a entrar a comprar mira hacia atrás y la cola seguía de largo hacia la acera de la calle. Además de eso no nos dejaron entrar normalmente, sino por grupos, primero entramos 30 personas y tiempo después dejaron entrar otro grupo de 40 personas.

I had no idea how long the line had gotten, as it seemed to end at one corner, but when we started going in to shop, I looked back and the line stretched all the way out onto the sidewalk. On top of that, they didn't let us in normally, but in groups; first 30 of us went in, and then later they let in another group of 40.

Me sorprendí de que todo parecía recordarme a la terrible crisis económica que vivimos en 2017-2018, las colas, las personas llevándose muchos productos, el supermercado escondiendo los alimentos… ETC. Pero a pesar de todo ese trauma debo confesar que en este lugar si se organizaron bien ya que el sistema que manejaban de no dejar entrar a todo el mundo servía perfecto, incluso pagamos bastante rápido cuando terminamos de comprar, pero si note que el mismo supermercado escondió algunos productos como el pan, algunas verduras, cereales, aun asi estaba bastante bien surtido.

I was surprised that everything seemed to remind me of the terrible economic crisis we experienced in 2017-2018: the queues, people taking large quantities of products, the supermarket hiding food... etc. But despite all that trauma, I must confess that this place was well organized, as their system of not letting everyone in worked perfectly. We even paid quite quickly when we finished shopping. However, I did notice that the supermarket itself hid some products like bread, some vegetables, and cereals, but even so, it was quite well-stocked.

Cuando salimos quedamos impresionados ya que la cola estaba aun mas larga, tuvimos suerte de llegar temprano y que todo salió bien, pero estoy realmente preocupada de los próximos días y semanas, ya que solo con el día de hoy estoy segura que el supermercado quedo un 60% vacío y me refiero a vacío de productos. Tambien he visto que en otros lugares las personas saquearon o se ponían a pelear por la comida, algo que era muy común en 2017 y realmente parece que volvimos en el tiempo.

When we left, we were shocked to see the line was even longer. We were lucky to arrive early and that everything went smoothly, but I'm really worried about the coming days and weeks. Just today, I'm sure the supermarket is about 60% empty, and I mean completely empty of products. I've also seen people looting or fighting over food in other places, something that was very common in 2017, and it really feels like we've gone back in time.

Y para que se den una idea de lo minúsculo que es gastar $100 en mercado en Venezuela les dejo la lista de las cosas que compre hoy:

Medio KG de queso, Un kg de leche en polvo, un kilo de gatarina, 1 pollo, Medio kg de carne molida,un papel higuienico, 2 paquetes de velas, aceite de cocina, verduras (pimenton, papas, platanos, cebolla), 1 arroz, 1 pasta, 1 azucar, un jabon en polvo, 2 cereales, 3 bolsitas de maní,mayonesa, salsa de tomate, 2 paquetes de cafe, 1 paquete de galletas, una mantequila, MEDIO carton de huevos, maiz para palomitas, 3 atunes.

Lo mas triste es que de todo compre una sola cosa, cuando estupidamente crei que con $100 podria comprar al menos 2 arroz, 2 pastas, etc. El pollo, la leche, la carn y el queso son lo mas costoso y que mas duele pagar pero super necesarios...

To give you an idea of how minuscule $100 is when you're shopping in Venezuela, here's a list of what I bought today:

Half a kilo of cheese, one kilo of powdered milk, one kilo of cat food, one chicken, half a kilo of ground beef, one roll of toilet paper, two packs of candles, cooking oil, vegetables (bell peppers, potatoes, plantains, onions), one package of rice, one package of pasta, one package of sugar, one bar of laundry detergent, two boxes of cereal, three small bags of peanuts, mayonnaise, ketchup, two packages of coffee, one package of cookies, one stick of butter, half a carton of eggs, popcorn kernels, and three cans of tuna.

The saddest part is that I only bought one item out of everything, when I stupidly thought that with $100 I could buy at least two packages of rice, two packages of pasta, etc. Chicken, milk, meat, and cheese are the most expensive things and the hardest to pay for, but they're absolutely essential...