Not The Day I Planned
Today did not go as planned. All I wanted to do was find a storage bin for Miss K's toys and get some groceries. I had thought we would walk to a nearby outdoor market called The Ramada, but Miss. K was not in the mood for a 20min walk so I decided to take a Micro (aka bus) seeing as none of the ones who were passing were overly full I decided today would be a good day to brave them alone.
I asked a lady which one went to a different market that my brother in law always takes us. She said #4 so we waited where she suggested and took #4 along the way I realized we were on a street where we had been a few times that specialized in plastic stuff. So we got off # 4 and shopped for the bin. Turned out they were a lot more expensive than I expected so we caught another Micro that said the name of the market on the window.
Unbeknownst to me the bus was going in the other direction which I figured out pretty quickly, but wrongly assumed that it would just make a circle and get their eventually. Instead it just kept going and going. And we got further from any part of the city that was familiar. It was amazing how quickly the quality of life decreased with each turn of the wheel. We quickly went from what we experience here daily to a level of poverty that I knew was here, but had only just glimpsed in previous trips. It was very reminiscent of Haiti. Houses gave way to coragated metal and scraps of lumber pieced together leaning against unfinished brick walls. Animals roamed about, underfed and snacking on the piles of trash that littered the road. And yet, just like my experience in Haiti the people were still well dressed, well kept and smiling.
It was a good reminder for me and a good lesson for Miss K that we are blessed to have what we have and we need to be thankful for the roof over our heads. I was hard to imagine what life must be like just a few miles from where we live with the cold, rain and wind we have been whining about.
Our bus never turned around so we got off at the end of the road, and jumped on the bus heading back. We eventually got to where we intended, but found nothing we were searching for.
It didn't matter though, our life lessons were more than we planned for today and will serve us much better than a plastic bin.
I asked a lady which one went to a different market that my brother in law always takes us. She said #4 so we waited where she suggested and took #4 along the way I realized we were on a street where we had been a few times that specialized in plastic stuff. So we got off # 4 and shopped for the bin. Turned out they were a lot more expensive than I expected so we caught another Micro that said the name of the market on the window.
Unbeknownst to me the bus was going in the other direction which I figured out pretty quickly, but wrongly assumed that it would just make a circle and get their eventually. Instead it just kept going and going. And we got further from any part of the city that was familiar. It was amazing how quickly the quality of life decreased with each turn of the wheel. We quickly went from what we experience here daily to a level of poverty that I knew was here, but had only just glimpsed in previous trips. It was very reminiscent of Haiti. Houses gave way to coragated metal and scraps of lumber pieced together leaning against unfinished brick walls. Animals roamed about, underfed and snacking on the piles of trash that littered the road. And yet, just like my experience in Haiti the people were still well dressed, well kept and smiling.
It was a good reminder for me and a good lesson for Miss K that we are blessed to have what we have and we need to be thankful for the roof over our heads. I was hard to imagine what life must be like just a few miles from where we live with the cold, rain and wind we have been whining about.
Our bus never turned around so we got off at the end of the road, and jumped on the bus heading back. We eventually got to where we intended, but found nothing we were searching for.
It didn't matter though, our life lessons were more than we planned for today and will serve us much better than a plastic bin.
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