A Difference of Culture

When I was growing up
Down in San Diego,
I lived on a big hill
Which was ideal
For go-carting.

It seemed like all the kids
In that neighborhood
Had homemade go-carts
And dangerous as it was,
We raced down that hill.

There was nothing fancy
About the rigs we built,
Just a piece of wood
On wheels
And a hand brake.

We would scavenge parts
From toys and bikes,
Wood from who knows where,
A few nails and bolts
And whatever else we could find.

Of course the object was
Not to use the brake
As we careened down the hill
At breakneck speed,
Dodging the occasional car.

I grew up with the thrill
Of that downhill run
And pleasure of go-carting.
I figured that kids anywhere
Instinctively know the purpose of a hill.

Years later while serving as
A Peace Corps Volunteer
In the South of Thailand
And I observed kids and hills
Without any go-karts.

I got this bright idea
About turning them on
To the age old sport,
So I got the parts
And put together a go-cart.

When I was a kid,
We had a pusher and a driver
And that was it,
But there they piled on
Ten or more kids on a single cart.

Kids would be falling off
Or being dragged along
As they raced down the hill
Skinning their knees
And tearing their clothes.

What I failed to realize
Was that the only way
They could narrow it down to two
Was to fight to see
Who those two would be.

No amount of coaching
Could teach them
The art of taking turns,
And the parents of the kids
Were ready to lynch me!





I eventually had to destroy that go-cart
For the good of the community
And that wasn’t the only thing
That I tried to do for the kids
Which didn’t go exactly as planned.

I noticed that a local grade school
Didn’t have a tetherball
And I remembered enjoying that as a kid
So I had one sent from the US
Which I installed at their school.

The same thing happened
Because ten or more
Could not play at once
And countless fights ensued
Necessitating its removal.

I wasn’t the only one
Frustrated by the culture.
There was an organization
Which paid to have American toilets
Installed in a number of schools.

Most of the schools
Fortunately kept them locked
So nobody could use them
Because nobody knew how!
The ones they used were flat on the floor.

Any toilets that weren’t locked
Always had footprints
From poor souls
Experimenting with
High altitude bombardment!

What became clear was that
The best of intentions
Will often go awry
Without a proper understanding
Of the differences of culture.