Emergency Vehicles in Lima

Well, we haven't seen anything move really fast thru traffice, but who can tell? We have seen some police vehicles, we think, that have sirens, but no flashing lights, some with flashing lights and no sirens. We wonder what the difference is.

Then the ambulences are about the size of a mini van. They have lights and sirens. The traffic is so crowded that they just move along with everyone else.

We did see a fire engine the other day. Looked like it may have been from the early 50's. It still had red paint and looked very official. I have seen a few burned out buildings, so I would guess they don't do too much good.

We looked at an apartment on the first floor last week and were warned against living on the ground floor because of people robbing you. I guess the police don't do anything to people, so they just get away with it. A lady in the temple was hit over the head and then they took the sheet off of her bed and started loading stuff up. They even took her stove. (not in the sheet). When they left they told her not to tell anyone or she would be dead. So, she was just grateful she was still alive. What a lady. One of the missionary couples here was also robbed, so we are not moving from the third floor.

Also noteworthy is I saw my first 18 wheeler the other day. It sure looked big among all the busses and cars. I think the guy driving drove it just like he was in a little car. They just whip around. Scares me to death. I finally learned to just close my eyes or look at a different window. They just toot and go. There is a lot of horn honking that goes on here. A story is told of a brother who was almost run over by a taxi. The first thing out of his mounth was - You didn't even honk - Someone else went to a big ball game when they were home once and as they were leaving they realized something was missing. No horn honking in all those thousands of people.