Creative Solutions

I saw something interesting yesterday. As I was on my way to work, I was coming down a mountain with two lanes of traffic in either direction and no centre divide or shoulder on the side of the road. We heard an emergency vehicle approaching from behind us, and I thought to myself, There's no way he's going to get through as there's no place for any of the cars to pull over.

Suddenly, in Moses-like fashion, the cars in the left lane moved over to the left, and the cars in the right lane moved over to the right (barely edging into the oncoming traffic lane) and the emergency vehicle went in between them, straddling the line that separated the two lanes of traffic on my side of the street. My first thought was, "That would never happen in the States." On further thought, I decided this is one more reason why I love South Africa.

Conventional wisdom says that in such-and-such situation, certain protocol must be followed. Often, however, conventional wisdom can't be followed due to circumstances. When that happens, we Westerners tend to complain. But here in South Africa, when circumstances prevent "normal" protocol from being followed, people just find a way around it. It's creative, innovative, resourceful and a very positive way of dealing with challenges.

Thank you, South Africa, for teaching me another lesson.