A Little Bit About Life and Culture

Today, when I was taking the bus, I was thinking about just how different things are down here. First of all, the people don't make nearly as much money as we do. For this reason, everything seems cheap to us, when the reality is that some of it is expensive to the people who live here! I was also thinking about the streets- they do NOT have construction down here like we do back home, and I think I've developed a new appreciation for it- the roads here are horrible! And the driving is a totally different situation. Traffic lights and stop signs are more of a suggestion than anything. Traffic jams and slow moving traffic are very common, especially at rush hour, but it is not limited to just that. I had all these thoughts while riding standing on a crowded bus full of people around our rush hour time. As I was thinking all of this, we passed two buses in a row overfull with people going to the same place less than a half an hour away. These buses are also practically free- less than 50 cents a ride- but they can afford to that because SO many people rely on public transportation.
And these are just some of the things I've noticed over time. Sometimes, it seems like home, only in a different language. However, other times, one can really notice that we are living in a third world country. Rivers are full of garbage, people sleep in garbage, people with no shoes sell whatever they can on the street...there are places with houses made of tin- the same tin the 'poor' houses use as roofs. I cannot even begin to imagine living in a rusted, leaking tin house.
However, by the same token, the government actually tries to help the situation. In one particularly poor part of the country, all the people who live there are working on building subsidized, sustainable housing.
Everything from the sounds to the smells are different here, but its a one chance opportunity to live here for a time, and I wouldn't change it.