Clinic visit and shopping

On Thursday (three days ago), I went shopping with my mom and sister because my sister needed to buy some jeans. Before we got started we first went to a public clinic in a poor little down called Guanta for me to get a blood test. If I saw such a place in the U.S. I would probably not venture near it, but I have learned to not be phased by certain things in Venezuela. It was free, which was our main reason for going there, and a lady from our church worked there as well who helped us get through with our appointment smoothly and without any hitches. We did have to wait a little while, and amused ourselves by watching all the other people there, mostly women and their children. There was a large waiting room and a smaller one that we sat in. In the bigger room a tiny TV transmitted Winnie the Pooh cartoons, but I looked at the people waiting and none seemed to be watching. There were all just staring vaguely in front of them, quite spaced out.

I hadn't had a blood test in years, so we decided it would probably be a good thing to do. I saw them take a sterile, brand new syringe out of its wrapping and so I stopped worrying about things being unsanitary. After they took my blood I had to wait a little bit longer with my mom and sister in the hallway, and while we were sitting there, a man came walking through with a large quantity of incense in long cardboard boxes, which were strapped together and hanging in front of him from his neck. I wasn't expecting someone to randomly try to sell things to people at a clinic, or at least I'd never seen it before. Before he passed, my mom asked him if he had any kiwi flavored ones left! He had one box left, and so she bought it off of him, for about a dollar, and was very pleased with her purchase.

We then took off for the big downtown area of Puerto La Cruz and spent many long hours traipsing around going to just about EVERY clothing store. My sister is quite particular when it comes to jeans, they have to be a certain style, certain length, color, etc. I amused myself by reading the labels on the clothing, as many of them were terrible translations. Most likely Chinese to English. You would think some of the things would be in Spanish! But I hardly saw any. Here's one of the pictures I took: