First impressions.

First impressions may also be the most important impressions.

What can be learned by walking around a community making observations and seeing things.

What do you see when you visit Times Square in New York? What do you see when you visit Central Park in New York ... or walk along 5th Avenue?

What do you see when you walk the streets of Long Island City ... across the East River from Manhattan?

What do you see when you walk around Harlem at 125th Street. What do you see when you walk around Morningside Heights?

What do you see when you walk around Upper Montclair in New Jersey ... or Verona?

Each of these locations looks very different ... and the underlying structure of these communities is different. They all reflect their history ... and decisions that were made that produced what is seen today.

For example: What can be learned by a first walk through a rural African community ... beyond the fact that it is very different from suburban New Jersey or the farming communities of Iowa.

• There are questions about living conditions ... shelter ... the houses or huts that are the living quarters;
• There are questions about food ... where does it come from and how is it cooked;
• There are questions about water ... where does water come from? How is it stored? What is the water quality?
• There are questions about sanitation ...
• Roads ... paths ... access to the highway ...
• How far from the nearest city ...
• Where is there a health clinic? A hospital?
• What about transport? Is it all walking? Bicycles? Cars? Donkey carts?
• School? Church or Mosque?