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Oh, the sights we see here in South Asia! Goods and services are delivered quite differently on this side of the world! Much of the work is done manually. Manual labor is usually cheaper than construction equipment or trucks.
Moving Day!
Look, no hands!
Construction workers carry heavy loads of bricks and sand
Many businesses and services are conducted along the roads. No building – no business taxes and no rent payments.
- Sidewalk barber shop
- Knife sharpeners make house calls
- Locksmiths walk the streets with a ring of keys and their “equipment”
- Outdoor caterers will setup cooking pots in the front yard so special events, such as the birth of a baby, can be celebrated with friends and neighbors.
- Cigarettes are sold individually - not by the carton.
Fish are dried in the sun along the side of the road, since there is little refrigeration, before being delivered to the roadside shops.
Much of the goods and services are delivered using hand-pulled trolleys, bicycle trolleys, carried or simply herded down the streets.
- Very heavy loads are moved by hand and bicycle trolleys
- School buses are much smaller and bicycle-powered.
- Snack cakes delivery
- Milk in plastic bags is transferred from a big truck to these bicycle carts for delivery
- Newspapers are distributed to the delivery men, who transport the newspapers by bicycle
- A daily sight is cattle, goats, water buffalo being herded down a main street
- There are no egg cartons. Eggs, delivered by bicycle trolleys, are unrefrigerated, sold loosely and put in a paper bag made from recycled paper.
- Fresh fruit is delivered to stores by bicycle trolley
- Wrecker service for CNG vehicles
- Nearly everything is fried in oil, so cooking oil is sold to the street vendors from 50 gallon drums.
- Chickens and ducks are sold live for the day’s meal.
Stores are very small and line both sides of the streets.
- Fresh meat for sale!
- Typical grocery store. Rice and spices are weighed by the kilogram.
- Roadside clothing store
- Fruit stand
- Typical general store, which carries limited amounts of a broad variety of goods.
- Pharmacies open to the sidewalk, and you never need a prescription. On a related note, when you visit a doctor or have medical tests, you are in charge of all of your medical records. No doctor keeps records; the patient keeps his own file.
- This watch repairman is a wonder! He usually works in the dark due to no electricity and is fast and efficient. Our watch bands keep breaking and having to be replaced.
No wonder we are without electricity so much of the time!
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