Traffic, Traffic, Traffic

In a city of an estimated 8 million people, there are going to be lots of cars. And by a lot of cars, I mean more than you can imagine. In an early post, we talked about the "10 Commandments of Driving," but what I failed to mention was the wait time required when driving. The nearest grocery store is about 5 kilometers away (give or take a few blocks). If the streets were empty, I could get there in less than 15 minutes. If there is traffic, the commute can be hours. Yes, hours with an "s."

There are many causes for traffic. There could be a new "pothole" that makes everyone slow down to drive across safely, there could be a car that has broken down and they left it where it was to repair, there could be 3 lanes of people trying to cut one another off instead of one lane of traffic, or it could just be that there are too many cars on the road going in the same direction.

That being said, I got stuck in traffic the other day and decided to take two photos. If you look closely at my side mirror, you will see that I was in the middle of the traffic.

Pausing from making cement bricks to watch
everyone argue about how best to solve the car puzzle

The cause for the traffic jam was a taxi driver. The driver decided to go around another slow driver, except he did not beat the driver facing him. They both slammed on their brakes but the taxi driver swerved and was blocking both lanes of traffic. No vehicles touched and no one was hurt. There was lots of yelling as people tried to figure out how to unblock the other cars, who at this point, were following so closely that the taxi was blocked in. (*I did not take a photo of the incident because I did not think a crowd of people wanted me in their way, snapping photos while they were arguing).

As I grew bored of waiting for the giant puzzle to be solved, I turned to my right and noticed two adorable children playing with a broken box.

Doesn't this melt your heart?

The one in blue pretended to repair the box with a rock and the one in white kept climbing up and down the box. It is amazing how much fun children can have even when they appear to have nothing.