Patience is a gift—a gift I don’t have.

Hospital.

I think the customer service system here is so messed up that it’s impossible to describe it with just one word.

It’s been almost 20 days of waiting to finalize this order—I need my health certificate and medical report, which are absolutely necessary for driving here in Venezuela—but the process of getting these in order depends entirely on the connections you have.

I’ve been going through this process since last Tuesday because it requires surgery on my lower back to drain an abscess I have there that’s filled with fluid. However, even though everyone has told me not to do it—saying it could make things worse—I think it’s actually gotten much worse now. I’ve tried to reach out to government officials for the assistance needed to make this small incision so they can remove this abnormality on my skin.

However, the excuses are quick to come when it comes to paperwork—especially when dealing with public services. At the Punta de Mata Hospital, even though most of these services are free, it’s useless if you don’t have the right connections. Literally, if they don’t know you, they aren’t interested in you—and since they aren’t interested in you, they couldn’t care less whether they fulfill their duties or not, as that sense of humanity has been in constant decline.

And this is something that truly stems from the lack of attention and the special treatment given to a select few—it’s like that saying: “My country is rich; there’s plenty here,” but that “plenty” is used only for a select few.

• Tenga en cuenta que todo es de texto fue traducido desde el español hasta el inglés utilizando la aplicación DeepL.

• Todas las imágenes y texto son de mi propiedad y no, no puedes reutilizarlo!