Things I Saw Outside My Window

This could definitely be a multiple-part entry, but it will likely be short each time I write it, so hopefully no one minds.  Today, Josh wanted to practice driving to his school.  He did pretty well and only missed one turn the entire time.  The drive allowed the kids and I to see more of the "real" Bangladesh that exists outside the diplomatic enclave.  I'd like to focus this particular group of sightings on the constant tear-down and construction here.

There was a group of men performing some road construction.  The first time we passed, they must have been on break, because all we saw was a large hole in the asphalt that went down showing layers of dirt, stone, brick, etc.  On the return trip, there was a group of 5 men each with a sledgehammer taking turns pounding a large metal spike into the asphalt to manually break it up and allow them to dig up the road.  Gives you a new appreciation for a jackhammer.

Apparently they were running some wiring for a new apartment complex because there was a man standing at the top of a 15 foot tall bamboo ladder (not an A frame one either) that was leaning against a large grouping of power lines - in the middle of a 4 lane road (that often holds way more than four lanes of traffic).  Forget about safety vests and bucket trucks.  All you really need is a ladder...

We passed countless bicycles pulling construction materials - 20 foot bamboo poles, 30 foot sections of rebar folded in half (these are then unfolded by men at the construction site by hand and banged with hammers to straighten them), and bags of concrete.  The dry concrete mix is taken to the construction sites where people carry in stones (in baskets on their heads) and sand to mix with the water to make cement for building.  Because there is such a significant shortage of small stones to use for this process, they make brand new bricks and pay people to break the bricks into tiny pieces to use as stone.  They also are very careful in the deconstruction phase and take old bricks away to break up in the same way.  The process is truly amazing.