Pick that Up!

I will admit that ever since the crazy riots I’ve had a hard time deciding what to write about.  It was hard for me to figure out how to transition from writing about riots to everyday life.  It somehow seemed wrong to go from “Hey, life is great ..” to “Oh man .. they burned our flag …. ”  But, you know what, that’s pretty much what happened.  One day the American Embassy was in the midst of mass chaos and the next it was business as usual.  I attribute this to 2 things … 1) (I’ve mentioned this a few times already) We had a great team on the ground doing everything they could to control the situation and 2) Egyptians are like toddlers — they sporadically burst into a fit and then — it’s over as quickly as it started.

So … it’s back to business as usual in my house too.  And my blog post for today is titled “Pick that up!” because I was chatting with a friend last night, and I was talking about a couple things that … no matter what I do or how well I acclimate, I’m not sure I will ever get used to.

One of those things being the littering.  I’m not talking about the piles of trash on the side of the road or the lack of organized garbage collection … I’m talking about the act of littering.  The piles of trash have become part of the scenery for me ….. they now blend into the surroundings and it’s just part of what I see out here … But …. to actually watch somebody throw trash on the ground ….. UGH.  I just can’t get used to that.  I was driving the other day and all of a sudden a Coke can goes flying out the window of the car in front of me.  I was appalled.  Never mind that fact that there are families of four piled on tiny motorbikes on major freeways with no helmets … never-mind the fact that 2 dudes had a fender bender and are yelling at each other in the middle of the road .. or the fact the there was a guy in a hole in the middle of the street with absolutely no safety measures around him at all.  Oh no … all this is going on around me and my jaw is dropped because somebody threw a Coke can out their window.

So anyway … the riots have subsided and life is peaceful, but the littering continues …..