Chris' Deployment Journal

Trucks full of the cylinders will prowl the neighborhood roads in the mornings, their drivers banging on the cylinders to let people know they're there. That 'clang clang clang' sound reverberates around the stone dwellings and courtyards and you can hear the sellers' progress through local neighborhoods from some way away.

Sometimes the sellers will instead drive around in the small vehicle to the right, which is really nothing more than a small engine, a frame (probably home-made somewhere) and the most rudimentary of steering, controls, and brakes. Just as there are no real electrical codes to speak of here, there are also very few traffic laws as well.

That's another thing from back home that we've come to appreciate, especially the tradesmen among us: clearly defined and universal laws and rules. While many back home might make fun of how meticulous and apparently anal such codes and restrictions might be, we've seen firsthand what life can be like without them. At this point, I will definitely take a little bureaucracy, difficult language, and overlapping restrictions over the chaotic alternative.