It was experience that had taught my mother to be this way. It was the everyday scarcity of food and basic goods that Venezuela and its people faced.
My grandmother stockpiled the things she could find, while shaking her head and saying "Es que ahora en este pais, no se consigue" towards the items that were no longer sold or had already run out.
In this country, you can't find anything.
No se consigue. How many times had I heard that phrase since I arrived 4 days ago?
It must have been close to a hundred by now.
When they had the extra large version of some item, for example laundry detergent or powdered milk, my grandmother quickly snatched it. Her rational… "Después no se consigue."
Later when we need it, we won't be able to find it.
Life had taught my grandmother, just as it had taught my mother, to save and stock up for the days when food was hard to find.
In Venezuela, it happens often and in recent years, that scarcity seems more pervasive than ever before.
In moving to the United States, a country where shortages of any good are virtually unheard of, it's hard for my mother to shift a mentality that has been molded and learned over decades.
Save, stock pile, and conserve.
Porque después… no se consigue.
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A picture of the front of El País newspaper today in Caracas.
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Que fuerte...my Nigerian mom also does something similar and since we have been stateside for so long, I forget the rationale behind those actions and to appreciate that because once upon a time or actually many times. that mentality is what saved us in periods of citywide rations where your money meant nothing to vendors, they simply just had nothing to sell.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the read my Venezuelan friend!
Thanks so much for reading Olu! And I really appreciate you sharing your own story. It's definitely a moment that makes me appreciate all we have back home. Hope to see you stateside sometime soon :)
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