July 14, 2007 - Guyuan, China
Return of Accountability
Or, Open Pits Abound
Living here in China going on 11 months my perceptions about certain things have definitely changed.
I no longer spit out little bits of gristle and fat - sometimes I even go out of my way to order it on kabobs - when eating meat.
I have convinced myself that drinking milk out of a small plastic bag is the norm.
And I keep a sharp eye out for open-manhole covers, pits and general construction projects.
A 50 meter stretch of sidewalk requires Super Mario agility - you very well may have three open manholes, a new trench for the cable being installed and a few missing paving stones to top it off. Consider it part of the challenge or the exotic allure of a Northwestern Chinese city.
In fact, the road directly in front of the Junior and Senior School has been a gigantic 2-meter deep pit for the last 2 months. Safety measures?
umm...
Well, at least the dirt will cushion your fall.
Recently I realized that in America there would have been droves of lawsuits with these sort of obstacles - and how frivolous most of them are - does it really take that much more attention to avoid such things?