Here is my walk to work. It generally takes me about 30 minutes. I leave this lovely street, which is part of the "Royal Mountain" neighbourhood and my host family at about 7am (my host brothers are in the photos running up the street). Generally there dog follows me for the first 10 minutes or so, meaning all the stray dogs in the street, come and hello.
I pass the sugar farm after about 5 minutes. At the moment they are burning cane, which means everything is filled with ash.
Then I go through a less developed area, which is beauitful. The grass is getting yellow (like Australia) because the raining season is just about to come.
Next comes this small set of shops. It's offically part of a new neighbourhood.There are often people selling bananas and watermelon out the front.
People are always sitting out the front of these shops talking to each other. As I walk by I am greeted by many people.
Not long after the shops is the very steep hill shown, with the very big drains, which I'm sure will seem appropriate when the raining season arrives, rightnow I just use them as a footpath though.
A little while later I get close to the centre of town. This intersection is the only one with traffic lights, in the town. But no one really obeys them anyway so they are quite useless. It's normally very busy and I'll spend up to 5 minutes trying to cross.
Just before I get to work I pass through the central park, the best thing about this town. Right opposite is the Catholic Church. It's a typical design for almost every town to have the church and the park next to each other. The park is full of couples, high school friends, mothers talking, old men chatting together, or interns reading the bible. It's my favourite part of town.
What a lovely blog Susanah, it makes me feel a part of your daily walk, which i am sure you enjoy. You mentioned several people, shopkeepers, interns, old men chatting, mothers. Would love to see these people if they are happy to be photographed, tell them you are sending it to your mother!
ReplyDeleteUmmm...sorry, but it's not likely to happen mum. I took this photo kinda secretly. Taking photos in public is stupid, espically in the park because it shows you have wealth. I went to the market the other day and saw some tourists ( well they had white skin) with a camera and all I could think was "you idiots, why would you display that". Similar story wit mobile phones, I don't think I've ever seen someone talking on one.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, wow! we just are so removed from all that, we flaunt our wealth constantly without thinking, then it becomes automatic. i had a new client the other day, want low fees, messed up family with heaps of problems, but took out the blackberry to note down my comments and advise!!! Felt like whipping out the means testing sheet right then!
ReplyDeleteWow...coming from here I find it so hard to imagine a street without stacks of ppl on phones or other portables.
ReplyDeleteI seldom go a day without taking calls on the bus, or in church too, whenever I have to talk to my pastor about something/set up a meeting etc, the first thing she does is pull her PDA out and start putting stuff in. In fact one time we couldn't do so for a couple of weeks b/c she lost the PDA (it's all good now). Shows you how different our tech culture is from the one you are now in.