http://benleiter.blogspot.com/
Welcome to my blog everyone! For those of you who are less familiar with how I ended up in Venezuela, I'll give you a little history. Back in March 2006 I applied for a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, to study international relations in Latin America for a year (Rotary asks you to submit 5 preferred study institutions and my top five were in Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, and Nicaragua). After I was awarded the scholarship, Rotary assigned me to my last choice, Nicaragua. Just as I was getting excited about spending a year in this beautiful Central American country with a rich political history, I discovered that the university I requested to attend decided not to offer their international relations program this year. So, I opted for a choice higher on my list. I was told that Colombia was out of the question due to the present civil war and asked to study in Venezuela instead, a country with a volatile and polarized political climate. The request was approved and it was now up to me to apply to the university, get accepted, apply for the visa, get the plane ticket, obtain int'l health insurance, and find housing. The good part of this story is that my Rotary scholarship covers all of my expenses (room, board, round trip ticket, tuition) except health insurance. Luckily Venezuela essentially has universal health care coverage. Not only is health care affordable in Venezuela, but education is too. I was shocked to find that the international health care plan that Rotary recommended costs more for the year than tuition at Universidad Simon Bolivar ($700), one of the best schools in the country.
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