Deer in Headlights...

I did a lot of driving this week.  I meant to put in the story about my day trip something about the people here and the roadway.  I forgot while I was writing it but was quickly reminded as soon as I was on the road again.

This information holds true everywhere I have been.  It is true in the city it is especially true in the countryside where roads are newer.  

Nationals here seem to be consistently surprised by cars on the road.  If you get close to a man walking in the middle of the street and honk he will jump and look as if he has no idea what is behind him.  He would clearly be much less shocked in a steer bumped him in the butt.  A friend will often say when driving, “Excuse me for driving on your sidewalk.”

On my day trip I nearly killed two people.  The first was a man with his heard of cows.  Somehow he never realized I was coming up behind him as he filled my lane with cows and walked partially on the on coming lane.  I moved towards the left so that I could go around him and suddenly he started running to the left.  It is possible he suddenly realized I was coming.  The problem is he ran directly in front of me.  I laid on the horn and steered farther left.  I nearly hit him.  I took the walking stick in his hand.  I clipped it with the front end of my van.  My passenger and I were both dumbfounded.  We got so close; it was awful.

A day later on the trip back there was a woman in my lane.  I honked the horn.  She saw me.  She froze.  I could go anywhere.  She moved a step left and then two right.  She moved back a step left and stopped.  I slammed on the brakes; by the time I stopped we were looking eye to eye.  She stood outside my window and I sat behind the wheel.  She walked away and it was all over.  

In the states you learn that two things can be done when an animal is in front of your car.  You can’t predict what the animal will do.  So you have to either slow down or hit it.  People here work the same way, problem is you never want to hit them.  You can’t predict their response.  For some reason they are completely baffled by what to do when a car is coming towards them.  I have literally watched a national be ¾ of the way across a road when they see a car coming.  Instead of taking the two steps to finish their crossing and get out from in front of the car they turn back and risked getting smacked by the car coming the other way.  It is both extremely frustrating and sometimes incredibly funny.