Falling Down

Apparently falling down is just a part of life in the Sandbox. I mean falling down like you're walking along and suddenly you find yourself on the ground. You don't necessarily know what happened, all you know is that at one point you were on your way somewhere and now you're not so much.

This may sound a little odd, but last night I had a falling down experience. I was just walking right outside of my front gate and then I wasn't walking anymore. What can I say, I like to keep the neighborhood entertained.

I had two of my American friends over for dinner tonight. One of them has been here for 4 months, the other for 16 months. Sidenote: there's not much entertainment around here so we pretty much take turns making fun of ourselves for everyone else's benefit. As I started to tell them my falling down story my 4 month friend thought it was just the most absurd thing. Then my 16 month friend chimed in with some of her falling down stories (we all have several) and we laughed pretty hard for a long time. I guess my 4 month friend just hasn't been here long enough but just give it time.

In my defense it is very hard to walk on these dirt roads, they're all uneven and there's holes and big rocks all over. Normally I look at my feet when I'm walking, partly to keep from making 'scandalous' eye contact with any man I don't know and partly to keep from falling down. The roads here are just ridiculous. Even if you're on a paved road or on one of the rare sidewalks you just never know when there's going to be a large hole in the ground that leads to a sewer, you really have to watch out for those. Oddly enough the local women don't seem to have any problems walking. They're wrapped up in a 4 meter long piece of material wearing heels and sometimes balancing things on their heads....and they manage to do it gracefully. Me? I just fall down and laugh about it later. Seriously, we gotta keep the neighbors on their toes....no wonder they think we're crazy!