Greetings, dear Steemians
Happy New Year to all of you

I started 2020 in a bad mood because, among other things, I had a tooth pulled out on Dec 30th and that made my New Year’s Eve miserable. But I am feeling much better now. After a copious bleeding the first 24 hours after the extraction, the socket seems to be healing ok.

I can eat again!

After two days of strict diet, I was able to try some solid food at my wife’s aunt’s apartment. We had a good time. My mother-in-law, who usually refuses any invitation to go out, accepted this time and it was great that she did because the food was delicious.

We had typical Venezuelan Christmas food: hallacas, chicken salad, and ham bread. For dessert we had prune and peach preserves. It was so delicious, there was no time for pictures.

This is going to be a very difficult year for us in Venezuela. Last year, around this time, people were excitedly counting the hours for Maduro and his cronies to be kicked out of power; today, most of us have no idea of what can happen and many actually think there is no way out of this mess (at least not in the short term). We have lost confidence in our politicians. The ones who were supposed to represent the opposition to Maduro’s regime seem to be compromised and willing to keep him in office in exchange for some share of the pie. Politically, 2020 is the darkest year we have had so far.

We are trying to face this with our best face, though. My wife will continue teaching, my daughter will continue creating art of all kinds. We’ll do whatever we can to contribute to whatever solution that becomes available, while keeping our options open. The idea of leaving the country is still there, even though it has become more difficult with all the conflicts in our neighboring countries, especially Colombia, Perú, Brazil, Chile and Argentina, and how expensive and difficult it is to try farther away destinations.

In the mean time, I am going to be more active on Twitter, promoting #Steem/ #Steemit and testing the water of a social media that has the potential to be a game-changer for society, but which so far it has been the cradle of fake news, name-calling, and time-wasting (I mean Twitter, of course).

I hope things go better in your part of the world. I am following some news from Australia, South Africa, Russia, Indonesia, Philippines, and China closely, hoping that my fellow steemians from those parts of the world are doing well.

Thanks for your visit. Steem on and stay blessed.