We are buying a car! It is a Jeep Cherokee maybe a 2000. A family that used to live here has moved back to America and we are very excited to have a family vehicle again. We will of course use it for things like going to the grocery store. I can’t wait to put groceries in the back again. It will beat the two overloaded bags I usually drag home by taxi or bus and kids in hand. Not to mention the use of a car seat again! I know it is for safety, but really I think car seats are so Mom’s can have a seat to her own and the kids buckled safely in their own spot. But, really Morgan looks forward to taking it to near farming areas on the weekend. It will be great to have our own transportation as well during the warmer months to visit our students in their home villages. The public 5 to 10 hour buses do not stop for potty training children nor do they have a smoking section. Lets just say this will be a big blessing to our family.
The DMV, want to be grateful for the American DMV? Then keep reading! First or all the transfer of ownership has been held up because they want to take a picture of Morgan and the old owner together at the DMV for the files. Um, he’s in America! OK so while we work on emails and such, we will work on the driving test. Today Morgan and I went to the local equivalent of the DMV. Thank goodness we had a translator and someone who has been down this road before.
First we went into office #1, and they gave us instructions.
Second, we entered into office #2 to take a photo, but that office has changed and told us to walk about 50 feet to the other office.
Office #3 More instructions about how much money it will be to take the photo. Oh and no smiles, this is official.
Office #4 Stand in line, pay $9 and get a receipt to take the photo.
Office #5 (right next door) it was a dark room with a policeman listing to Beyonce, and we waited about 10 min to take the photo.
Office #6 Next to the last office, we waited about 20 min and received the nice new photos that will be used on our license. It is 10 degrees outside and my nose is a resemblance of a very serious Rudolph! But whatever, it’s not like I am going to ask for another one.
Office #8 (A few doors down from the last one) We paid for the application process paper, another $9 for the both of us.
Office #7 this was a little scary, a cold white room with two desks, it had two police men waiting for the people applying. It had one eye exam poster on the wall to check for the eyes. One scale, and that’s it. Our translator handed the man our paper with the new picture. He started to write very sloppy and asked Morgan how tall he was. Without waiting for a response he answered for him 185 cm, which is over 6 ft. tall, and Morgan is 5 feet, 9in. Ok then, he looked at the both of us, wrote down some more scribbles and said ok. I guess because I was wearing my glasses this must prove, I have been to an eye doctor recently?
Then we went to Office #10, We could tell this was the big one, It had a computer and lot of red ink stamps. They made us fill out the rest of the application and then officially stamped it.
After about an hour and a half we went back to Office #1, handed the official paper with stamp and picture to the desk. They told us to take a seat and will call us by name. Waited not too long then returned to the desk. They handed us back some information but said we must pay for the test at the other desk and get the receipt. We paid another $9 and then found out the printer is down so we are not sure when the test will be. Maybe it will be Friday, but we have to come back for the test receipt to know for sure, to come back again and take the test.
Talk about the run around!
Wish us luck! They say only one foreigner has only passed the first time. It is a timed 30 min test of a 100 questions written in bad English. So we are currently studying a translated test. Maybe when we are done the driving laws will make more since to us.
