Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Why it's exhausting to live in Guyana...

...because you can see a problem and even go so far as to try and draw attention to it, but then nothing gets done and when further problems arise you think to yourself..but I said THIS would happen!

So, there's a problem of over-sized vehicles and narrow roads designed for the days when the importation of Cars were severely restricted. I had written a letter to the papers about the avenue that my parent's house is located as the Large oversized vehicle drivers generally bully the others into the grass verge. My personal view is that they should not be allowed onto most roads in Georgetown and at the driver's expense, the same monitering device which restricts vehicles into London and presumably major City Centres be installed; as the reigning 'more money than sense' viewpoint is sadly apparent.
So on my way to feed the dogs, an over-sized Dodge pick-up sped by at the narrowest section of the road where there is a restricted view of the road from both sides, though presumably the higher placed you are the better the view. I pulled into the corner and grazed a hedge but he clipped my bumper and it and the side-strip fell off as the Germans wisely attached both with clips. Shaken I got out of the vehicle and the kind Afro-Guyanese couple on their way to the Emancipation celebrations at the Park gave me their pen and name and address in the event I needed a witness.  Turns out to be a young Brazilian who tried to argue that we were both on the road in his limited English-- so I told him to head to the nearest Police Station where I'd make a report as he didn't agree to pay for re-installing the bumper.
The long and short of it is that I got my Bodyshop people to come and give an estimate late at night but got into a panic when I couldn't get the go-head as his and his Guyanese liasion person's cell-phone was switched off, so I accepted their offer of letting their Bodyshop person fix back the bumper the next day.
On collecting the car, I noticed Dry-wall screws were liberally applied to parts that fell off and really needed to be replaced and the young body-shop guy proudly announced that the next time I have an accident it wouldn't fall off-- no you idiot-- it'll just rip away the bottom of my car!!!  The Germans had a reason for attaching that parts with clips--this begins to feel strangely familiar to the guys forcing the long lugs in and damaging the threads of the wheel and other part.
 See http://gtobserver.blogspot.com/2011/06/recklessness.html .   Maybe this is divine punishment-- be stuck with a bit of a brain in a Sea of Ignorance?

When I started to whine, the man made himself scarce and his 'manager' attempted to distract me with the totally irrelevant comments on his aunt and my accent!
Too exhausted to fight further-- we have exceptionally talented amateurs but that is what they are-- amateurs.

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