Let me paint you a picture..

I am awakened at 6:30 am either by the roosters downstairs or by the construction workers across the street. I doze in and out of sleep until about 7:15 when I hear the playful laughter of children on the way to school. As I wake up and get ready, I listen to the rest of the city already on their way to work. I begin to hear the honking of the cars as they warn pedestrians and other drivers to stay out of the way. Depending on what is going on for the day, I may go up to the J/P HRO camp to bring the mechanics up to work on the cars. If they find out they need a part then we head downtown to more of the industrial part of town passing the presidential palace which collapsed on itself. The sun reflects off the painted white, making it contrast that much more from the bright green of the lawn that it sits on. There are tents surrounding what once were parks all around the adjacent streets. Presidential candidate’s names are spray painted around the concrete perimeter while posters of the same candidate’s posters have been glued to the green wrought iron fences which line the lawn. People have taken up the sidewalk space selling everything from phone credit to used clothes to freshly cooked food. As we wind through the traffic, which at first glance seems to have no structure to it but upon further inspection there is a certain chaotic method of getting through the newly formed one way streets due to the dumping of rubble into the already broken and pot-holed filled roads, we have to make our way around the tap-taps which are basically trucks with a covering over the bed and benches for the customers to sit on. They are usually filled with people and have others hanging on in the back while blasting the latest hip-hop and rap songs. Driving through the streets of downtown a mixture of exhaust, rotting garbage, and food cooking overcome the area. As we drive by some women selling oranges and peeling them for their customers we may just get lucky enough to get a whiff of the citrus filling the air but only briefly as we pass by.  Dogs wander the streets usually limping along on three good legs either because of being hit by cars or any other numerous reasons.  On our way back from downtown we pass women walking around with live chickens held upside down who stop in from of each store window holding them up to entice a potential customer. Heading back up the hill in traffic and the mid-day sun the drink sellers walking alongside the cars seem to look more and more tempting as the minutes turn into an hour or two. By the time we get back up to the cars we started working on in the morning it is now turning into late afternoon so the mechanic packs up his tools and we make plans to finish the work the next morning. If I have learned one thing so far it is to not make plans because there is always something that comes up to change them so just go with it because there is nothing else you can do about it. As soon as the sun begins to sets, all of the sellers on the streets pack up and head to wherever they call home and the night street food sellers and tent bars begin to get ready for the evening customers. The sun sets very quickly and once it is gone the temperature drops rapidly. Not enough to feel a chill, but just enough to feel al of the heat from the day disperse only to come back in a few hours. Things begin to get quite on the streets around the house around 8 or 9 and after 10 there is hardly any traffic to be heard except for downtown off into the distance. The late night is the best time to get anything done since no one is using the internet and this time of night is the only quite I get throughout the day. Pretty soon my eyes will no longer be able to stay open and I will go off to sleep for a few hours only to do it all over again once I wake.