Every time I
leave my apartment here in the village I am risking my life. If you’re
confused, see my previous blogs on the traffic and driving here. My brush with
death today came in the form of a scooter/bicycle collision only inches in
front of me.
As I walked out
of the school gates, I took the usual precautions. Look left. Look right. Look
diagonally. Look up. Pray. Repeat. As I saw no traffic, I stepped bravely onto
the sidewalk. The Chinese dude on the bike leaving the store next to me obviously
didn’t see the scooter either.
BAM! Homeboy on a
scooter materializes out of thin air and t-bones the guy on the bike, who goes
flying a good couple feet.
I watch in abject
horror as the driver of the scooter begins to yell at the biker. Which makes
total sense of course; we were all on the sidewalk… Clearly a scooter has the
right of way. And not the part of the sidewalk here that people use for parking
where the culpable party could be debatable. Sidewalk that you have to go up 3 stairs
to walk on. Which means that this guy had to make a concerted effort to get his
scooter up there.
Thankfully everyone
was okay. But it scared the hell out of me. And I was definitely awake before I
had my coffee.
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