How Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

(This is not a joke)

I’ve gained a lot of knowledge and skills in the past nearly 5 months, much of which will be completely useless when I go back to America. However, this knowledge will serve me well for the next 22 months.

One of the most useful skills I’ve obtained is the ability to read a chicken’s mind. Well, not really. But I have figured out how to avoid running over chickens while in transit.

Here’s how it works.

Chickens like to go for walks. Just like you and me, they like to go on adventures and sometimes even get brave enough to leave the compound and cross the street (HAHAHA! … I’ve never understood this joke).

I have come very close to running over chickens countless times. But now I am one with the chickens. I understand them.

When a chicken crosses the street, it only has one thing in mind- the other side of the street. It does not consider distance, and space. Backtracking is almost never an option for a chicken. It must press onward and deliver the punchline to get to the other side. When it sees you coming, it is going to get flustered, lift its wings, and DASH!

So what does this mean for people in transit?

This means, that no matter how far the distance is between the chicken and “the other side”, and how slow the chicken is walking when you first see it, you must go BEHIND the chicken. Don’t try to go in front of the chicken, where there is plenty of road left. The chicken will run right under your tire.

Here’s a diagram.

                       you

                         |    /

                     O—O                                chicken

                                                                 (^)

                                                                (    )

- - - - TRAVEL HERE- - - - - -

______________________________________________________________________________

Don’t forget it.

The last picture is a shot of some goats hangin out with Buddha.

The first 5 shots are of my running route. There's a wide dirt path right through the rice fields that I go running on. When I first got here, I went running almost every day. I haven't been running in a month now.. lol. I'm too busy. and lazy. but mostly too busy.

These pictures are from 2 months ago. The rice fields were still green and long. Now it's harvest season, so the rice fields are muddy and bare. But not for long, I'm sure.

Pictures do not do the rice fields justice. You just have to come seem them yourself.