So Many Switches

Our temporary apartment has 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a kitchen, and a
living room/dining room. In all, there are 109 switches. Some turn on lights,
some turn on outlets, some turn on fans. At night Steve and I race to bed
first, whoever loses has to turn off the lights and may spend 10 minutes
trying to figure out which switch is for which light. The dining room alone
has a panel of 11 switches.

Across the street several families labor every day on a new building site.
During the day the entire family works, at night they sleep in the shell of the
building. Women (dressed in those bright saris) break up stones or haul
metal tubs of rocks out of the site. The men ascend flimsy scaffolding
to continue work above. There is a fishnet strung between bushes below -
presumably to catch any who may misstep and plunge from the 9-story
building. Children scamper over piles of sand, stopping only to laugh and
giggle in youthful exuberance. These are the lucky ones - they have work
and a roof over their heads, at least for the moment.