A Missed Photo Op

 

One of the interesting things about the culture here is the here-and -now way of life. Please note, this is based on my observations and experience, which is not extensive. And remember that I spend more time with school children than with grown-ups! Let me explain what I mean by that. When Dela and I give our English classes to the elementary school, we meet outside. The children bring their school benches from the classroom to the area under the mango trees, where it is cool. Despite the fact that they have performed that action every week, they never seem to remember how to arrange the benches. Every week, we have them create two rows, with two or three benches facing forward and another one or two on each side perpendicular to the middle ones, so that it is somewhat of a U shape. They have to be told every time where to put the benches. I have heard that adults tend to call a repairman when something breaks rather than do the preventative maintenance; they buy only a few cellphone or electric credits at a time or buy the cheapest version of an item, such as a toilet seat (see my early post, "Joy in the Little Things"), knowing that they will have to replace it soon. Part of that is economics, of course. However, from hearing Hammer talk, the idea of putting money aside for the future has to be taught frequently.

Last week (Thursday, May 19) I witnessed another example of living in the moment. Workers are at the mission compound to repair or replace the roof. One might expect a roofer to have a ladder to take to any jobsite. Perhaps this one does but it isn’t tall enough. For whatever reason, before work on the roof began, the workers built a ladder.

I was able to watch a bit, because the kindergarteners were observing my car. This is the third mode of transportation they have talked about in the past couple of weeks. First they observed a bicycle. They looked at it while Tata told them what the parts were in French.  They even learned a little poem that names some of those parts. A few days later, they observed a motorcycle. And yesterday it was my car. I have to say I have learned some new vocabulary. I wouldn’t have known what to call the muffler on a motorcycle.

Since I always park by the church, we were close to the ladder building process. It was only yesterday evening that I realized that I missed an opportunity for some good pictures. Today I saw the ladder in action and was able to take a picture. You get to see the finished product below. So sorry I missed the opportunity for an interesting shot yesterday!