The Fog

Driving in China is bad enough under normal circumstances. To make matters worse, the girl that works for us just started driving a few months ago. When she drives, she's so nervous that she can't turn her head to check for traffic for fear of losing track of what's in front of her. She just stares straight ahead, clinging to the steering wheel for dear life.

The only way I can ride with her without going into a full cardiac arrest is to mentally prepare myself for the fact that we will, eventually, have an accident, and just hope that it's not too serious. Otherwise, I jump at every car that comes within 20 yards or any pedestrian or motorcycle that ventures to cross in front of us.

Having developed so rapidly in recent years, what were once empty pastures or slow, country roads are now 6 lane highways. Somebody needs to tell the grandmas and grandpas that live nearby because they move like they are crossing the same country road of their childhood, leisurely walking out without looking either way, but instead of a bicycle or another pedestrian that needs to dodge them, it's a 16 wheeler.

The point of all this is that last week a fog rolled in over Haining, China, and I thought my luck and finally run out - either mine, or some unfortunate pedestrian on the way to the market.

No grandmas or grandpas were harmed in the making of this blog.