Sterotyping

14 days into Taiwan has taught me a lot of things about the drivers I went together with. And also, more about myself.

I used to treat all drivers as people with real problems, like 'hokkien pengs' who are simply looking for trouble. This resulted in accusations of them playing punk and such, and I wasn't even aware of my own doing! Yeah I know.... I'm a driver myself too. Sounds like a paradox right?

There were two items missing then upon the second day in Taiwan: a fire extinguisher, and a first aid box. Worry was the first thing that came into my mind, but I thought, it couldn't be stolen, as the only drivers needing this kind of stuff is us, and them, the perm staff at the MT line. But disbelief of my own people has led me to think about them playing punk and hiding those stuff, and their counter-accusation: that the perm staff at the MT Line could be the ones in need of those two items.

Another report came two days later; two Land Rover cushions were missing too.

I just cracked.

With the drivers rallying against me, and the MT Line people piling the pressure of the missing items on me, I simply gave up. It doesn't help that one of the drivers kept pushing me to doing petty errands like buying snacks from the outside, when I don't have a phone to call the locals. Also another driver who seems to be able to make use of the laws in driving and use it against me, frustrating me yet again.

And of course, one driver that seems to only care about himself, and nothing more.

Thanks the skys above when 4 days later, upon the unloading of stuff from training, the two items magically came back, because of misplacings from a trainee.

And the cushions! it was actually used for another vehicle earlier on!

A sigh of relief.

And I just realised what I have been just doing: Sterotyping.

Still, the drivers are still okay after this lesson I got, although they have tendacies of missing out on girls in this male-dominated enviornment, expressing it on people like me, pulling lame pranks on me like heating my foot up with a lighter.

There is still one driver that got me quite pissed though; the driver that seems to only care about himself, depends on others to do small stuff like getting new uniforms and rations daily, eating mileage, and nothing more.