Things I see on the way to school...

In an attempt to escape the unrelenting heat of our apartment during the day, I've started visiting Allen's school early in the morning and hiding in one of the (mercifully) air conditioned and empty classrooms. Thankfully both the teachers and the students put up with me scurrying about trying hard not to be noticed (and hence, not disturbing their studies) ... while I play video games, read Google Reader, and make movies about cooking.... (ahem) amongst other important things I do on this magic electric box that is attached to my fingers all day.

But taking a cycle rickshaw every day to school - as opposed to zipping around on my scooter (sniff) - has given me the chance to see our neighborhood in a whole different light.... a slower, slightly more laborious light.* I pass all manner of life in the streets that can include, but is not limited to:

• Butterflies. I've seen at least one every day for the past two weeks and have had the pleasure of of a couple following me for a time on my journey.
• The subzi-wallas (vegetable sellers) setting up their carts in the shade.
• Morning puja.
• Well-fed and clean children in school uniforms in giggling groups going to school.
• Street children, in a completely different type of uniform of dirty clothes and unkempt hair, in groups trolling the streets to fill their large white plastic bags with trash they collect in the gutters.
• Empty stores with shuttered windows (because they don't open until 11am).
• Large scale construction projects, with bamboo scaffolding, almost on every corner.
• Men using shovels and sticks to muck out the sewers.
• Traffic.
• Burning garbage (sometimes the piles grow, sometimes they shrink, but they never disappear).
• Cows, usually laying out majestically as if rousing themselves from sleep ... or eating the burning garbage heaps.
• Morning bathing at the local wells.
• Chai stalls getting deliveries of milk by bicycle.
• The refreshing shade of some trees on the side of the road.

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* I don't really believe I will ever get completely comfortable with someone else to lug my weight around town on the back of a bicycle. It really makes you think about just how cheap labor is here that the "foreigner" price to haul two able bodied Americans approximately 3km costs a dollar.