No Volkswagens Here

Still snow on the mountain tops, it was an exceptionally clear day Sunday and these mountains stood out more than usual. I'm told they are in Pakistan.

There are no Volkswagens here, so the other day, we made the attempt to see how many Afghani men we could get in a dump truck. Not really, it was an opportunity to avoid the walk to the gate, so they all piled in the back of the dump truck. One of the contractors parks his equipment in the bazaar parking lot at night and then takes his workers to the gate in one truck. The other day he happened to be parking his trucks just as the bazaar was closing and all of the workers were starting their walk to the gate. They were offered a ride and all accepted. There had to be 40-50 men in the back of the dump truck and another 7 or 8 in the cab.

Another vehicle story, on me this time. We have two rented Toyota Hilux SUVs (similar to 4-Runners) for us to use in getting around to projects. There is something wrong with these vehicles - the steering wheel is on the passenger side of the vehicle. I don't use them very often, but once again today I got in on the wrong side. This time I noticed before I shut the door and I think I got out before anyone saw me. The first time I got in on the wrong side, I shut the door, reached for the steering wheel and tried to put the key in the ignition before I noticed the steering wheel was in front of the seat next to me. Luckily, I was by myself and I don't think anyone saw me that time either.

Also, with the steering wheel on the wrong side the turn signal lever and wiper lever are also reversed. I usually turn the wipers on more times than I signal my turns. By the end of the six months I'll have it figured out and when I get home I'll just act like I'm the passenger when I get in on the wrong side.