“What to do?” This common Sri Lankan English phrase summed up my feelings earlier this week, when on my way home from work the pedal fell off of my bicycle. I stopped, picked up the pedal, and assessed the situation as a few curious Sri Lankans came to watch.
Fortunately, I was at the top of a hill. So for about half a kilometer I tried to ride with one pedal. As I was slowly struggling along, it started to rain. A few Sri Lankans riding by slowed down to inquire about what had happened. Unsurprisingly, pedaling with one leg wasn’t working out too well. I came to the bottom of a large hill and decided it was time to figure something else out. I hailed down a tuk tuk, and shoved my cycle in the back of it.
We had just departed when a police officer pulled us over to see what was wrong. He scolded the tuk tuk driver, apparently this wasn’t legal. The driver somehow worked things out, and we were back on our way towards my house. The driver had to take a series of backroads to avoid two more checkpoints along the road, because he was afraid of getting fined for having a bicycle hanging out of his vehicle.
Three months ago, I’m not sure I would have handled the situation as well as I did today. I wasn’t angry or upset. I sort of just laughed. Sri Lanka has made me better at dealing with unfortunate situations, people here don’t get as worked up about things as we do in America.
What to do?