It’s truly an adventure every time I step out of my door. Just the other day, I walked to a coffee shop down the street and documented my meandering with photographs (to be posted later), and it was such a beautiful experience to just look and see the little street that I live on.
But, not every experience on the roads here is sweet and beautiful. Some are quite terrifying.
During that trip I mentioned in my previous post, to some far off lands up north, we drove on some interesting roads. Pavement ends, gravel (if you’re lucky) begins. Single lane traffic. Headlights viewed as optional (or merely as a signaling tool). Small children scurrying across the road. Herds lumbering along.
As a signal, the headlights’ code could be broken down as follows: 1 flash: Hi, I’m here. 2 flashes: You are on my side of the road. Multiple flashes: I realize I’m on your side of the road, but just slow down a little so I can pass this oxen drawn cart with the seven families on it plus the six bicycles in front of it that I won’t see until I’m directly on top of them. Multiple flashes and horn: Hell, no, get back on your side of the road. It differs…day light, rain, presence of herds of animals, and a median change the meanings, but generally, you can follow the above as a rule if you ever try to drive here.
Anyway, during our trip, we bought a few permanently borrowed dvds (everyone does it), but we ended up not even getting our 35 rupees worth. There were five Bollywood movies, and all might have possibly been recorded while sitting in a movie theatre. The one we chose to watch was 16 minutes in length. Quite possibly the most intense preview I have ever seen. At one point, it cut from a song and dance routine to a woman weeping. We thought the recorder had slipped into a different movie after being caught recording for the 5th time. So, I’m clearly absorbed in this compelling film, yet still strangely distracted by what’s going on ahead. Headlights flashing. Still flashing. Horn comes, and we slip in just in time. My heart was racing the whole time.
I would nominate driving here, especially at night, as an olympic sport. It takes muscle coordination, performing at top capacity under extreme circumstances, and considerable skills and training. I have never been so happy to see a median in my life as I was after riding in the car for 14 hours. Not that a median is any guarantee of traffic direction in your lane, but it helps to lessen the abrupt presence of oncoming traffic at any given moment. There are still giant holes in the pavement where, during the day, men had set about to repair a water line and simply hadn’t finished it, or finished it with a large bump in the middle of the road.
But the point of all of this is that the driving here, apart from being a fantastic olympic sport, would be an amazing Mario Kart course. I think about it every time I’m on the road. I don’t want to brag, but I’m really good at Mario Kart. (Even though I just spelled it Maria Cart, and couldn’t figure out why it looked wrong). Rainbow World has nothing on this. No amount of red shells or bananas or ticking bombs on wheels or lightning bolts could have prepared me for driving here. Instead of bananas, you have napping dogs. Instead of ticking bombs, you have massive, blundering bovine. Instead of red shells, you have children haphazardly trying to ride bicycles on a dark street. It is crazy, but it’s the world I’m in.
Miss Kari Barrows. I thoroughly enjoy your postings! Happening upon your little bursts of cultural tidbits serves as a much needed refreshment, for me particularly, from America-Land. Keep it up friend! 🙂
I really enjoy your imagery. I just want to play Mario Kart so bad right now… but last time Dave Voss and Brad Wetherall kicked my butt…
🙂 thinking of you and praying for you today. Kari, you are loved, and I am thankful for you.
Jess
yes your mom is appalled!! yikes and yikes. You probably were wondering why it took so long for me to respond..largely due to forgetting to read your blog the last week or so. I continue to pray for god’s armor . love mom