More Questions from Whitefish Bay

To the Whitefish Bay class: Thanks so much for your comments and questions. It really makes my day when I hear from you and others. Here are my responses to the questions you asked:

Why are the streets there [in Bethlehem] so skinny?
In Bethlehem for hundreds of years there were no cars and the city is built on hillsides. I think that as the city grew people didn’t plan for wide streets and since the streets have to go up and down the hillsides they go back and forth like switchbacks on a walking trail. Some of the oldest streets are the narrowest and I don’t think we would allow cars to go on these streets.

One other thing that we were told is that there has been some political confusion in the last few years, which has resulted in no one enforcing laws about where you can build a house and that sort of thing. People have taken advantage of this and built homes RIGHT next to the side of the road. Usually cities have laws about leaving some space between your house and the road. So that is another thing that has contributed to the tight roads.

Do boys and girls go to school together?
Boys and girls do go to school together. The expectations for men and women are very different and so it is rare to see a boy and a girl (or a man and a woman) walking together and women tend to sit together and then men together. There are Christians and Muslims in the city. The Christian women do not wear head coverings, but many of the Muslim women do.

In recent years more and more of the Muslim women are wearing conservative clothing and head covering. They say that it helps them feel more comfortable and modest. The men tend to stare at women, especially those who wear less clothes. Grace (she just graduated from college), who was pictured earlier said that she does not go out without either her father or brother accompanying her. I think that things are changing in Bethlehem, like they are everywhere, but in the past women did not work outside of the home. They stay at home and spend lots of time cooking and taking care of large families. In a society like this education is not as important for women. What do you think about that?

Are the laws there the same as in the US? Like speed limits?
I am not sure, but I do know that speed limits are not posted and there did not seem to be any:-)

It is funny…. I am writing this from Rome and a few evenings ago we took a Taxi ride from a restaurant to our apartment. Even though the streets were wider I found this ride scarier than in Bethlehem! In Bethlehem it seemed that there was a very orderly way of driving that everyone understood even though it was not posted and there were few streetlights. In Rome drivers seem to make up their own rules and go as fast as they can. I always tell myself that the driver depends upon this car for his livelihood and so he doesn’t want to have an accident any more than I do. He knows what he is doing. Then I close my eyes and hold on.

What kinds of cars do people there drive?
What I was surprised about in Bethelehm is that they drive mostly what we would call mid-sized cars. The car that we rode around the most in was a Nissan, but there were BMWs, old Hondas, citroens, and I even saw an old VW bug! “The Professor” says that they have to have cars that they can work on since there are not a lot of auto shops around to fix cars. Also, when I asked Osama, who drove us around he said that people need big cars because they have big families. In Rome there are lots of much smaller cars and motorcycles. I am putting in a picture of a Smart Car. Have you seen these cars? There are lots of them here.

I am hoping that you have voted in the final run off for the Armadillo name (Sheriff Bob or Dill) and in the next post you should hear a bit about Rome and also the results of the poll!