Sick Day 2: Week 6 / Day 41 / Feb 20
Agra, India: Today is only a partial sick day – I’m not sure how many days I get in this role and don’t want to burn them up all at once. I walked down to the store again to get some more supplies. I brought my camera with me this time to capture a bit of what I am seeing in the surrounding area.
One of the things I noticed immediately upon leaving the apartment building (well, besides the informal tent settlement of about 8 families directly across the street), was the ditch that had slabs of rock laid over it. These ditches are found all over the area and are typically filled with garbage and / or water. Where they are filled with both, it makes a kind of fetid stew that I would not want to fall into.
It was fairly foggy / hazy as I made my way up the road to the grocery store.
However, this did not seem to be the persistent smog that I saw in New Delhi, as clear blue skies were visible yesterday.
One thing I have not commented on a lot is just the sheer number of cows that I encounter as I walk the streets.
Often times they are just roaming free in the streets, or are penned / staked as they were near a tent settlement as shown in the last picture.
As I progressed further up the road I saw more and more people coming from the direction I was headed with large bags of various fresh produce.
Just past a fuel station, with incredibly long lines, I neared the entrance to a market area.
This produce market area was much more informal than what I had seen in either New Delhi or Jaipur. Here there were not formal stalls or buildings, but only tarps suspended between wooden poles in a large vacant field.
As had happened so many times before, once I took the picture of the man sitting with his produce, others in the market began to ask for their pictures to be taken as well.
I don’t think there is a future for me in portrait photography, but there is clearly a demand.
As I exited the market, I also passed a number of vendors who were cooking and selling food.
Following my visit to the grocery store I headed back towards the apartment. Along the way I noted a building under construction along the road.
I’m not sure how safe I would have felt being the guy on the scaffolding working on the first floor. Although perhaps it only appears less than sturdy.
After this brief excursion I stayed in for the rest of the day. I can highly recommend re-watching the original seasons of Arrested Development on Netflix (Yay! for NordVPN).
