Dad why are they marching?

Its been a tense week in Caracas. We have largely been going about our lives and routines: school, after school sports, frozen yogurt on a Saturday. On February 12 students and citizens of Venezuela marched in the capital and other cities asking for change- security, food, financial hope. A much better account has been written by our neighbors Shayne and Diana that is well worth the read if you need to better understand the situation. Another well crafted piece is this video a young girl put together called: whats going on in Venezuela in a nutshell

Our school had a few early releases so students could get a jump on traffic caused by the marches and we cancelled after school activities a few days as well, but other than that I hadn't really discussed it much with my children aside from saying "people want a change so they are marching."

Sometimes as a parent, in my hope to protect and shield my kids from things, I forget that their ability to understand situations, make sense of events, and empathize with other people's feelings often surpasses my own ability. So there we were strolling down into Las Mercedes looking for lunch and ice cream this weekend when we came across a march. Compared to the one the day before in the same area- this one was quite small- but something about my body language must have been enough to get both kids into a hyper-alert state of readiness- they were ready to double back and run! But we watched from a distance and Luca asked "Dad why are they marching? Venezuela is awesome." I certainly realized he was getting more than I thought- and that he was probably fine to talk more about it than I had been. So Wilder, Luca, and I walked a bit closer, had a seat and talked about what changes the people wanted, we talked about how frustrating it must be to want change and not be able to get it, we talked about how many Venezuelans also think their country is awesome but not what is happening to it right now. The march went on, the traffic resumed, and we had lunch. The kids probably moved on to other things as it seems like I am the only one that dwells on stuff sometimes.
I'll leave those dwellings for another post- till then if you persisted long enough to read this long post then I ask you to keep in your thoughts the community here that so wants change and a different more positive future- and also think of your own community- no matter how small- and what action you can do to make it better, no matter how small.