Oh man did I make an incredible cultural discovery today! I went out for lunch with one of the missionary families from the church and after we finished they wanted to take me back to their apartment to pick a few things up before heading back for evening service. On the ground floor of their apartment complex there is a parking garage for tenants. A buzzer was used to open the gated door and we drove in to look for a place to park since there are no reserved spots. The garage was much smaller than I expected and after I took a closer look at the layout, I noticed there were quite a few spots that were completely blocked by another spot right in front of it. In other words, if you parked your car in the back spot against the wall, and someone else came and parked in the front spot, you were totally stuck.
My first reaction was, surely they rent those spots out to the same tenant that has two cars so there would never be a situation in which one car would be blocked from getting out by a car that belonged to someone else.
Wrong!
The understood rule is, if you park in one of the spots blocking another car (which we did) you must leave your car in neutral (regardless of whether it is an automatic or manual) and make sure you do not put the parking brake on. You have to do all of this because if the owner of the blocked car comes down and wants to leave before you do, he has to push your car out of his way!
Now stop and think about all of this for just a moment. What if the parking garage is not level? What if cars periodically slide around? What if when you return to get your car but you cant find it because gravity or another motorist has moved it? The possibilities are many and funny.
So remember, when you return to your car in Brazil and you see a few lads pushing a car around, lend a hand because they just want to leave too!
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5 comments:
haha. i totally know what this is like. our missionary family had to get pushed around every morning to get out of the garage. very entertaining! ahh Brasil, how I love thee!
Caleb! I just found you! I am so excited that you are there. I can't wait to hear more about your adventures!
What if Mito church adopted the same system?!? Can you imagine the post-reihai craziness?
I experienced this parking phenomenon, too! I think it was in Thailand, or maybe in Uruguay.
Hey Caleb!! I remember a garage like this from when I was in Brazil. What's going on with you lately? Proud of you for being there!
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