One of the enduring mysteries of Bakersfield is how one of the most xenophobic areas of the country ended up with such a large Hindu and Muslim population. It is beyond bizarre.
People are always on the news railing against "the illegals" or "terrorists", and yet in day to day life everyone seems to play nice. Maybe it's out of necessity... without the Pakistanis there'd be no doctors here.
And yet, occasionally, cultures clash.
I had to run an errand outside of town this morning and on the way back traffic slowed to a crawl, a huge block of cars going 40, if that. Eventually I managed to work my way up to the front of the pack and discovered what the problem was.
A late model Corolla was weaving wildly between the first, second and third lanes, going only about 35 or 40 miles per hour. It was banged all to hell and every time it weaved to the right, several cars were able to zoom by in the fast lane. What the hell was going on, I thought, but then I got a look at the driver.
A Muslim woman. I'm assuming it was a woman but there was no way to be sure. She was completely covered with a hijab, the full body shroud devout Muslim woman wear. One would presume it had a eye slit, but I couldn't see it and I wasn't going to stick around to find out. As she started weaving back in my direction I punched the gas.
I can't imagine she has a license. Since devout woman never go out in public uncovered, I'm assuming she would've had to take the driving test dressed the same way. Or maybe they just have different standards here. Maybe the Bako DMV has a category labeled "Close Enough."
