Crazy Traffic and Construction Circus

We have most likely mentioned this before in our blog, but we were told when we first got here to take as many pictures as we could in the first six months, after that the sights become common place. Well we have been in country for nineteen plus months and there are still some sights that are definitely not common sights for us.

We live close enough to our office that we do not get out in the heavy traffic frequently, but every time that we do we still shake our heads, it is still not common. This evening we went to Brooklyn Pizza, which is by our old apartment. First it took more than thirty minutes to go 2 kilometers, which is about a mile and a half. We are always amazed by how opportunistic the traffic is, if you give an inch then they will take a yard (or a meter since we are in Asia). Even though there are marked lanes, they are seldom followed. Places where two lanes are marked turn into five or six when you count the motos between the three lanes of cars.

Another very uncommon sight is still their construction safety habits, absolutely no OSHA rules in place here. The wire act across the street at the new building was even more dangerous today as a single worker moved his make shift ladder platform around the sign. We also had the workers on their balance beam, really a very flimsy ladder between two crate size containers. Then there was the painter down below standing on whatever he could to reach the accent trim on the building. What a real circus for us to watch.

Now lest you wonder if we actually did some Self-Reliance work today, we had a great Skype call with Chad, our Area Manager. We have a scheduled time each month to talk about all of the Self-Reliance Missionaries and how they are doing. Likewise, what we can do in encouraging them to help the managers and specialists. We also had a Skype call scheduled with one of the Senior Couples but their computer did not like Skype today.