Strange things in Sept

Just a few "lighter side" things that made me scratch my head and say "hmmmmm".

I turned on the TV in my apartment to find news (albeit in Spanish) on the days leading up to and right after hurricane Felix. I stumbled across Sesame Street...you know, the show for kids with Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, Cookie Monster, etc. I was surprised to find that the show was VERY different in Latin America. For example, Big Bird, starting with mid neck and going downwards, was all green feathered (instead of bright yellow)! Green! A day later, I found a morning talk show called Hello El Salvador which I figured was kind of like the MS/NBC Today Show. They were doing a spoof on Fred Flinstone and his gang. Each show person was dressed according to their assigned character. There was Wilma, Bam-Bam, Pebbles, Barney, and Pedro. Yes, Pedro...not Fred. And He's not Fred Frinstone, he's Pedro something another in Spanish which in English means rock picker (i.e. with a pic ax). A green Big Bird and Pedro the Rock Picker! Teri tells me that this wasn't really Big Bid, but his Latino cousin (or something like that)...Whew! And she has no idea of why Fred is not Frederico, but she says it always has been Pedro instead.

Something else strange here are their "Circles of Death"...or at least that's what I call them, and they cause my heart to beat fast and my palms to sweat. They use traffic circles here all over the place. I don't know about you, but my stomping ground in Richmond Virgina does not have traffic circles. And the circles that I did encounter in other areas, were quite simple and essentially was just a circle put at the intersection of 4 roads. Oh no...everything is a bit more complicated here. The circles here have an inner lane and an outer lane, but it's common for 3 and sometimes 4 lanes to form regardless of the lanes marked in the circle. And this traffic circle is not just where 2 roads meet...but who knows how many roads. There are numerous places where people are getting in and out of the circles like spokes on a wheel. I have caused Teri to suck in a lot of air and hold on tight as I have maneuvered (that's just a nice way to say I almost killed us) in traffic circles. I'm not joking. Car horns were honking and brakes were squealing. My problem is that I keep trying to think logically here...and not only does it not work, but it can kill you. You see, it seems to me that if you're in the traffic circle and you plan on getting off on one of the spokes of the wheel, then you'll be in the outer circle. But this would be logical. Instead, people (including Teri who is actually a good driver) frequently exit the circle from the inner lane of the circle....kind of like how people make right hand turns from the left land here too. So when I'm trying to get into the circle and I see a break in action in the outer circle, I try to get into the outer lane. Unfortunately, I can't mind read in English or Spanish and am not aware the car in the inner lane is merging out of the circle at the sample point where I'm getting into the circle. This causes a bit of a problem. One intersection that I saw last week was a "normal" intersection of several roads and had a traffic circle around it. In other words, just consider an Astrix mark with a circle around it. Like I said, I refer to them as the Circles of Death. Saying a pray before I drive...like a prayer said before a meal...is done routinely and sincerely here by us missionaries.