Day three and we have settled into our final destination just minutes from the Institute where we will begin classes on Wednesday. This apartment, on the third floor of a large house, is beautiful. The room overlooks a garden and a park and there are vegetation and flowers all around. I have my own room with some privacy finally, which I crave. I’m eager to have the luxury of time. Time to read. Time to study. Time to meditate. Time to just “be”. But not so fast…
First we needed the lay of the land so we ventured out on the street. It simply can’t be described, the chaos of the street and the emotional energy it takes to just be there. The streets near us are a web of traffic circles with arteries extending in every direction. Cars drive on the opposite side of the road (from America) and there are no visible signs of traffic regulation, much less decorum. Basically, cars beep, dart, bob and weave their way along the road. The narrow roads are packed with small cars, motorbikes, rickshaws, bicycles, people, and dogs. Pedestrians have bigger problems. Since there are almost no traffic lights and very few stop signs, you are left to your own devices to get from one side of the street to the other. So you must look quickly back and forth, and back and forth, all the while anticipating the flow of traffic and accounting for the weave as you await a small opening in the stream. Once you commit you must finish. That means MOVE and dodge anything unforeseen such as missing bricks in the road or a wayward motorcycle until you mount the curb on the opposite side. It takes not only patience and courage, but a fair measure of moxy.
Yesterday at a particularly busy intersection, I became so frustrated I resorted to a tactic so low its only used by terrorists: the human shield! There was a man near me attempting to cross as I was, but he was slightly behind and between me and the oncoming traffic. As I watched him inch out I thought, “Follow him, and stay just ahead so he remains between you and one lane of traffic.” It worked fabulously, but it was not my most noble moment. It is ironic that just last weekend I was in Boulder where, “The pedestrian always has the right of way!!” . Ha! Well, we’re not in Kansas any more honey, and definitely not in Boulder.
