View from a Street

This is the main thoroughfare in sub-district nine.  We parked up near the end of the road as it leads up the hill, then walked down away from the hill and toward the center of the city.  As soon as we got out, throngs of little kids, mostly boys but a few girls dressed in very colorful clothes with sparkling glittery things peppering the garment, clotted around us and stayed glued to us.  Most were too shy to talk to us.  We also talked to some shopkeepers; if you bought a soda or a water, they would talk.  The older men either didn't bother to look up at us or made it clear from their expressions they had no interest in talking.  The big problem in this district, we learned, besides the absence of a school or sewage or electricity or jobs, was drainage; when it rains, all the water comes rolling down from the hill and overflows the ditches along the side of the road and floods the street and shops. Speaking of electricity, most people simply don't have it and thus don't buy the things that would need it, thus helping keep demand low, thus reducing the impact of the erratic supply.  The city gets about 2-3 hours a day every 2 or 3 days, and most of that is directed toward the small industrial part, not to the residential districts.  People charge their cell phones with their car batteries.  As you'll see in the photo, too, anytime you take a walk like this, you're also escorted by some heavily armed friends.