A Wakeup Call

I had my first dose of freaky reality this week.  My principal is not a big fan of motorbikes.  He has made it really clear that we are never to arrive on a motorbike without a helmet.  Not a bad idea actually.  He also tells us newbies many times that we will crash.  One of my coworkers has actually had 3 accidents but she's been driving a while so that didn't actually happen all at once.  Last weekend, I decided to get on the bike and venture out onto the road.  I drove myself less than a mile away to the laundry place.  Then I drove myself home.  I discovered that I drove better when I relaxed.  Feeling confident, I decided to drive a little farther.  So a few days later I drove to the gas station and then to the store.  Had a few freaky moments when I accelerated and it freaked me out so my first instinct was not to use the brake but put my feet out because putting them down didn't really work.  It wasn't until I was headed home that I ran into trouble.  Trouble is good at finding us when we least expect it.  Since we drive on the left here, left turns are a lot easier to navigate than right turns across traffic.  I was approaching a left turn in what should have been an easy navigation.  Instead of turning, I found myself on my side with the bike on my left leg as if I had just tipped over to the left.  It wasn't that easy though.  I hit my head on the bike.  I think my knee hit the bike also and the top of my foot scraped against something.  I shakily put the bike upright, wondered if my teeth were all still intact since my lip felt banged up.  I tried to move the bike out of the way for fear oncoming vehicles would hit me.  The bike apparently turned off in the impact and I couldn't get it to move forward.  A man came out of nowhere, picked up the bike and put it on the cement area between the two roads.  Then he left.  I tried to call the owner of the motorbike but not able to reach him and instead called my housemate.  Normally one might think that that should have been my first call but I was driving the only vehicle of our household.  So it wasn't like she was going to hop in a car and come get me.  She did however make suggestions on what I should do next.  One of which was to wait until I was less shaky to consider driving the bike home or wait until someone could come to me.  I got off the phone, took a deep breath, put my shopping bags back on the bike and slowly drove home.  I was very grateful that the bike did drive.  It turns out however that I altered the alignment and the foot brake in the fall though.  So today, the bike is getting looked at.  I'm praying for an easy fix.   I'm just so grateful that I walked away from the accident with no broken bones and my life still intact.  It was however a reminder of how important helmets are.  I had mind on so the goose egg on my head was not from hitting the road but rather hitting the bike in the impact.  I also realized that I need to not be in such a hurry to be a driver.  I can do slow short driving around my neighborhood in the same way that I used to drive around the parking lot at my apartment.  I also made the decision to get back on the bike even if I only go a few feet, so that I don't become fearful.  It is believe it or not, better to be a motorbike driver here I think than  car driver.  Not because of the type of vehicle but rather because as a motorbike driver, you can fit in smaller areas and everyone is looking out for you more than the cars.  As a car driver, you have to look around constantly because motorbikes are everywhere and on all sides of the car.  It would be really easy not to see one coming.  Some motorbike drivers take a lot of liberties on the road and as I might have mentioned before, the lines on the roads tend to be suggestions of where you should be driving.  Some roads are so narrow, its difficult to stay in one lane especially for cars.  Also some drivers see empty lanes from oncoming traffic as extra passing lanes.  As scary as it all sounds, I have become a much more cautious pedestrian and the occasional driver.