Weekly Photo Challenge: Delicate

Day 443 – October 7, 2012

Yes, I realize I am seven days overdue with this theme from WordPress but I am a proud alumni of Procrastination University and this is simply par for the course.

This week’s Last week’s theme of delicate and there will be no shots of gossamer webs, hummingbird wings, or flaky pastries in today’s blog. This is mainly because the spiders here in Peru are quite burly and they build mean-as-bugger webbing, the hummingbirds are a tad too quick to catch on digital film (this shot notwithstanding), and I don’t cook quite pastries all that well.

To answer the challenge of “delicate”, I take you back to Sunday, October 7 of this year where nothing massively unlucky occurred. The power did go out in our neighborhood but I hardly think that qualifies as an omen of ill.

We took the family to a paintball outing. There are two (yes, count them, two) outfits in our section of Lima where one can don camo overalls, lie next to a haystack or shell of a car, and have your legs bruised fifty shades of blue by your best friend firing pellets full of paint at you.

My children say it’s fun.

I sit back and watch and take their word for it.

After an afternoon of mock warfare, the family drove to a friend’s house where we would continue enjoying the day with snacks and beverages. On our way there, we came to a stoplight and being the good driver that I am (this post notwithstanding), I stopped when the light was red.

Out of the corner of my left eye, I saw a pair of figures shuffling across the cross walk. An extremely frail-looking elderly man was being helped across the street by a local security official. The man from the city was patient with his charge because the old man walked haltingly and tentatively. He walked so slowly that the light turned green while he was still in the cross walk. Look at this picture…

Delicate Crossing

…and notice that stoplight to the left is on yellow. It took the pair another cycle of red and green lights until they were all the way across.

What amazed me more than the official’s patience was that during the entire time that the helper and helpee were in the cross walk, no one honked. Those who have braved the streets of Lima know what an amazing event that is.