Thursday, March 09, 2006

Watch out for the manholes!

Two of my team members have fallen into a manhole while walking within the past few weeks! And another friend fell into one while riding his bicycle (slowly, praise the Lord!) and his bicycle literally snapped in two! The "iron"y of it is that the gypsies "steel" all the manhole covers to cash in for a pettance and then the government has to go buy them back! So there are rarely covers on the manholes here, which causes you to have a bit more focus when you walk or ride your bike, or the bus (I also saw a man step off the bus directly into a manhole and had to have help getting out!) . Just another one of the daily challenges of living in Albania! :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lest some of you that read Laura's blog think she is exagerting....I just walked here to the internet cafe and saw at least three uncovered man holes on my way here. One of them was near my house here in Tirana. The cover was, however, laying right there beside the hole. I tried to push it back on the hole with my foot, but the thing weighed a ton!!! I am very thankful that it was dailight because I otherwise could have walked right into it!!!!!

Don said...

And to further confirm it, I've been in Korca, Vlora, Erseka, Pogradec, and other places and in every one I have seen missing covers. At least now I know why they were missing. (P.S. Hi Laura, I missed seeing you this summer)
Don