Okay, now that I've been here about 3 months (3 months??? seems like longer), here's a few differences that the U.S. could stand to emulate, along with a few that make me miss "home:"
* Hot water heaters: for the bath/shower, they have smaller water heaters in the bathroom that you only turn on about 20-30 minutes before you bathe and then turn off when you're done - cutting electricity costs and saving energy.
* Sticking with the bathroom, a downside is that many places - older, more rural, still have outdated toilet plumbing and thus you can't flush paper. So they keep little covered wastebaskets next to the toilets for that. This is how it was EVERYWHERE while I was in Kazakhstan and I got so used to it that when I was med-evac'd to the states and staying at the PC hotel in DC, I did it the first couple of times there. Felt bad for the maid! Luckily, where I am now is a more modern building so don't have to do that!
* Like most civilized places - and, luckily, I know this is increasing in the states - people remove their shoes upon entering the house (some even outside the door) and immediately put on house shoes. Another thing that happened in Kazakhstan and got me in the habit of doing it 25 years ago - reinforced in Hawai'i', where it is also the norm. I mean, honestly, who wants your nasty shoes tracking in whatever offal you've tromped through outside (shudder).
* Even though tourism is the biggest industry here, there's a problem with littler in many areas - exacerbated by the fact that garbage removal is a little less "standardized." Where I lived during training, there was basically just a small "dumping ground" where I waited on the van for school where folks would dump their bagged trash - which was often then torn open by all the roving dogs (there's a LOT of roving dogs and cats here). At my new place, there are dumpsters, but I have yet to see regular, door-to-door pick up of trash here.
* Blankets are all covered here in "blanket sheets." A bit awkward to put on, but thus allowing for easier cleaning. Basically a pillowcase for your blanket. Then, if you need more, you can put another uncovered blanket on top of the covered one so that it doesn't touch your filthy body! :)
* Stores are closed on Sundays. And, in fact, they recently LEGISLATED this because they did allow them open on Sunday in the past, mandating that employers pay extra to staff on those days - but since (surprise, surprise) many emplloyers weren't doing that, the government just said, "Fine, you can no longer be open on Sundays at all.'"There are exceptions for hospitality industry stuff, and if there's only one grocey store in town they can ask for an exception, but that's it.
* Like most civilized countries, health and education here are free - all the way through getting your Masters! Some health services DO cost (elective, some dental), and there are also private providers if you want to pay for "higher quality" and/or quicker access, but since life expectancy here is about the same as in the U.S., they're obviously not hurting.
* Finally, an "interesting" old school cultural note: Back in the old days (and, apparently, POSSIBLY still happening in isolated rural/mountain enclaves), when a wife was unfaithful to her husband, she would have to bake a large loaf of bread that she would then place on her head before her husband then whacked her on said bread/head with a huge mallet, killing her. Ah, if only Eve had known what she unleashed by eating that apple!
Disclaimer: Any thoughts, observations, opinions, etc. are of course mine and not necessarily the views of Peace Corps.
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