A Short introduction

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Well before anything I would like to give you a little introduction of the place I live, my country Venezuela, the country with the most oil reserves in the world and at the same time the most corrupt, with the highest inflation rate and index of poverty of almost any other country.

Just to get started and a little bit of context, in Venezuela the minimum wage right now is Bs 2.500.000, the equivalent to $ 1,08, you see in my country the official exchange from Bs to $ is around Bs 80.000 = $ 1, this will put the minimum wage at approximately $ 31, (if you ask me still is like a joke, but hey, is a lot more than $1,08) but unfortunately the access to this exchange it´s not available for the public, to be more specific, it’s only for “large” companies, governments institutes, and alike, so the only place left to obtain this currency is from the black market, with the exchange rate of Bs 2.300.000 = $ 1 (you can check the current rate at this page https://dolartoday.com/ it’s always changing, even by the hour)

The exchange rate of $1 is Bs 2.300.000

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This with lead us to the first conclusion, that the economy of the country is really, really bad, we are talking about an inflation of 15.000% annually, which it’s crazy, the price of anything change by the day, just to give an example of how bad the situation is (without mentioning, other topics like, security, health, hunger, etc.) the current price of 1kg (like 2 pounds) of meat cost more o less Bs 6.000.000, another example, the price of a kilo of chicken is around Bs 3.000.000.

Two pounds of meat cost Bs 6.000.000 and two pounds of chicken it’s priced at Bs 3.000.000

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With these prices, what you can buy with your salary it’s almost nothing, well any of you could think, there have to be something that you can buy, something cheap, but in reality all the food has prices in some shape or form equally insane.

Try to imagine, how you could survive with a salary of $31, how do you pay rent, food, services, don’t even mention, go out, dinner in a place or restaurant, now try the same thought with $1,08 of minimum wage, that it, only $1,08 every month, it’s impossible, there is no way that somebody with that salary could survive, and i don’t going to mention the price of any electronic, those are on the roof.

What would you do with only $1.08 of salary?

Would you survive with that amount?

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The truth is that many Venezuelan like me, must relay not only with luck, but with economic support of a relative outside of the country to survive this really bad times. I´m really grateful to have a decent job (I’m student of Computer Science and have a part time job of software developer jr in a local business) that help me and my family with some of the expenses of the house, but even with the amount that I make, (which is roughly like 5 times the minimum wage) is not enough, only with the cost of the food my salary disappears and I got short every month.

Having a relative outside the country that can help you has become practically a necessity.

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There is the incredible help that can give you a relative outside the country, if we make a little math, with only a support of $20 (which is approximately the amount that my father send) it’s like Bs 46.000.000 that’s almost 5 times the amount that I make every month, and in most of the places in the world you make the same amount in a day, if you think about it, a person with a minimum wage has to work for 18 month to make that number (Bs 2.500.000 x 18 = Bs 45.000.000) I look at this, and make simple nonsense…

My intention with all of this it’s not to depress you, or feel sorry about me, not at all (but if you think about it, the situation is really depressing), the idea was give you a little bit of inside, some context about my environment, so you could understand a little bit of the situation that I am in, give you my experience, thoughts, anecdotes of making the no phone experiment.

I thought of making a little introduction of the situation in my country and start with some of the experience of the experiment, but I think that I let myself taken a little bit by the situation of my country and all the feelings that I have.

Anyway, I hope you like this intro, I would call this entry like part 0, and later I would post the actual first part (sorry about it), if you have any suggestions, any comment, feel free to give any input, and sorry if my English is not as elegant or fluent but this is my second language and I try my best.

Have a great day, and remember you are an awesome person, not only know it, but believe it.

Bye

J.