September 20 - Wednesday
It's interesting how the US has all of these legal standards/codes that must be met and maintain by businesses. For example medical facilities, restaurants/food service areas and building and construction. The buildings across the road from us are undergoing heavy reconstruction. This morning I was looking out our gabled window and was reminded of how different our two countries are. Back home these guys would likely be in long pants, hard hats, steel toed boots and wearing eye protection. Instead, what I'm observing are guys in tank tops and shorts, not hard hats,eye protection and they're wearing wafer thin flip flops but looking like they would be just as comfortable walking around barefoot. I wonder what the injury rate is in this country compared with back home. I also don't hear as much electrical tools being used. I don't here the familiar sound of the air compressor for the nail gun, I don't think there is as much technology in the tools being used in this project. Perhaps the simplicity of tools while making the job take longer, keep the number of injuries lower? Who knows.
I watched the street begin to wake up as the street vendors began setting up their stalls. At the end of street where there is a T intersection I watched the Buddhist monks walking back to their wat (it's just up the road) with their large urns to collect offerings - yes, they too were barefoot.
