Ocupado

The internet has been really annoying lately, I've been trying to write about my day the other day but it hasn't been cooperating. Thursday was a fairly busy day. In the morning Jose and I walked to go get hair cuts. I was kind of nervous going into it hah wasn't really sure what was going to happen. I told the guy that I pretty much just wanted it the same as it was, only shorter. He took that creatively. I walked out of the place with a fohawk and gelled hair. So that was interesting. The people at the church office all seemed to like it though, they said now I'm less of a gringo. I haven't gelled it up since then though and I'm not really planning on it. That evening Saymi Jose and I were here at the house and Fr. Greg casually said I could take the truck to bring her home later if I wanted to. So that was awesome, I'm pretty excited about that. Having another independent mode of transportation other than Javier will be really nice so he doesn't have to drive all the time. Fr. doesn't want me to go to Puerto Ordaz yet but that's fine, in time I'm sure he'll be fine with it. I've only been here for two and a half weeks, I wasn't expecting to be able to even drive in San Felix yet. That night Jose and I went to the mens national championship volleyball game here in Ciudad Guayana with his friend Danny who is from Puerto Ordaz. It was nuts. The team from this state, Bolívar, was playing so there were a ton of people there. One guy on the team, who is also on the Venezuelan national team, is just a monster. His legs looked like tree trunks and he was the strongest looking person I think I've ever seen. His serve was so fast that a guy on the other team didn't have time to react and it hit him in the chest. Awesome.
A few days ago we went to the shopping center in San Felix. It's very different than the Puerto Ordaz version. Orinokia and Alta Vista are the shopping malls in P.Ordaz, they are smaller versions of the Mall of America. Air conditioned, really nice. The San Felix centro has a lot of open to the air clothes vendors, little side shops, food vendors lining the streets, etc. We went to the bank so Jose could cash his check, waited in line for 45 minutes which was great in an un airconditioned room with tons of people. The sign on the door that said no wearing hats, no wearing sunglasses, no wearing motorcycle/military looking helmets, and finally, no guns, was kind of funny to me. No combat helmets. Got it.