A Walk to Work

How was your walk to work? Anything novel to report or share with the class? A great book about a walk is Dr. Seuss' "To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street". Sometimes I feel like I'm living on that street, except that I don't have to make any of it up. Yesterday we went to a church in Turrialba, about 2 hours from San Jose. The occasion was to teach in their church service (I did that) baptize some new believers (Roger and I did that), and perform a wedding (Roger did that). Don't ask me why we had to do it and not the local pastor, but we did leave our notes with him so he can step up to the plate next time. Anyway, on the way I saw what topped the pig on a leash that Roger saw in Haiti once. We saw a rooster with a string tied around his leg, and the string then tied to a rock. It kept him from wandering out into the highway I guess. It was a beautiful drive up into the mountains and down into the Turrialba valley.



But I don't have to leave the city to see marvelous things. When I get on the bus, and the driver is in a good mood, that's marvelous. When I get off the bus, and hit the crosswalk just when it's turning green, that's a thrill. When I see the little old lady selling her homemade empanadas, and she proudly shows me her new product, baked cheese empanadas, made with love and no grease or cholesterol, it's a good day. There is always the possibility for a mistep or two of course, for though they call this place paradise, it isn't usually so. For example, the other day I was walking to work, and in a place where lots of people walk, you're bound to find persons that don't walk at the same pace. If someone passes you on the sidewalk, what's that to you? But in some instances, your going to have to find the way to gracefully pass the tortugas who block your speedy access to the path. I usually quicken my step, and even veer off into the street a bit, so as not to make it any kind of personal affront to their carefully reasoned and chosen pace. This approach has worked a number of times in the past, and I think I'm rather good at it by now. I guess I was busy congratulating myself the other day however, as I suddenly found myself walking down the wrong street...oh crud, I took the turn a block early!@!! That wouldn't normally be a problem in most neighborhoods, but in this one near to our office, the blocks aren't all connected. I had no recourse but to turn around and go back, and that would mean, of course, passing the same people that I had just successfully overtaken just moments ago.


Some of you guys know what I'm talking about when I speak of the humiliation of passing the same cars or trucks any number of times on the interstate. That's usually because we're so compassionate with our families and will readily pull over and go the bathroom again, no matter who just went, or if the number of the necessity changed, or the Diet Coke is gone or got warm, or whatever. In doing so, we nearly always lose our position in the race, but that's okay. That's just the kind of guys we are. But you need to hear me when I say that such interstate
humiliation is so insulated and impersonal compared with the urban sidewalk in Central America. My fellow pedestrians know I'm lost, they know I'm a wandering child in a foreign culture, it doesn't matter how shiny my shoes are. They can see my red face, feel the heat of the embarrassment, and I can hear the snickers, which sound so similar to snickers in English. I know I shouldn't complain, it's such a minor thing. It's just my walk to work. How was your walk? Didn't you just come by here? Are they laughing at you?