Vehicles

What I have found most interesting here in the last couple of days are probably the things that the locals here notice the least. For example, as I biked to the post office today after work it was diffulcult to concentrate on the road. A woman infront of me carried a load of tupperware containers about 2 feet high off her head without a hand on the basket....another woman was outright walking with a full sized cooler on here head. My attention was then suddenly distracted as I heard a loud banging sound...I've come to recognize this as a vehicle or motorbike backfiring since this happens often. This particular vehicle that had backfired was an ancient 1/4 tonne pick-up truck absolutely packed with people in the back and covered with a rack that was then piled high with bikes, baskets and various other loads. The vehicle rocked and swerved to gain control, until the driver, who was actually smiling, decided perhaps his load was a little too large, and finally pulled over at which point several passengers disembarked. Similarly, another vehicle I saw today...a small nissan taxi, was loaded to the brim in the trunk with huge bags of chilli peppers and then another 4 bags ontop. I guess this is how things get done.