Officially Official

Today went not at all as I expected, but turned out fine.

I was bracing myself for the 5:30 alarm, but woke up at 5:29 and stayed in bed until the alarm went off.  Jetty is not used to getting up at that hour so she ended up covered in blankets with only her head poking out after I made my bed.  (Normally she gets up with me.) Getting up that early was not as painful as I had been bracing myself for.

By the time I picked Walter up the sun was shining brightly, even though it was only 6:40.  We hit a little traffic and made it to the Transito (DMV) a couple minutes late.  Walter usually does the talking for me when we are in situations like that, which I appreciate, so I think the teacher assumed I didn't know much Spanish.  As I signed in he discreetly told Walter that Walter could take the written test for me.  Walter told me later so I was relaxed throughout the class.  He took a ton of notes.  I think he was a little worried about not doing well for me.  He said it's been a long time since he took the test.  When the teacher came around with paper to take notes, I asked for one.  He was surprised I could write in Spanish.

The class was really funny.  We were laughing all of the way through it.  He told one boy to put his hat on straight and went into a big monologue about why it is important to wear your baseball cap the correct way.  He had a bunch of jokes about taxi drivers.  He definitely did a good job making dry material fun.  He explained what the laws are, but also how to drive in Honduras - where people don't follow the laws.  I never imagined you'd need to tell people in driver's ed that they should not stop directly UNDER the stop light.  But I see it every day and so the teacher did his job trying to correct people.  He talked FAST.  I guess that's to be expected.  A lot to cover.  But there were some words I had never heard like "curb", and a bunch of different types of accidents.

I got an 80%, which wasn't bad since I didn't know some of the words and I didn't try too hard because I thought they would only use Walter's test.  They didn't need to use his copy since I passed on my own!  I didn't have to take a driver's test since I had a license from another country.  The driver's test consisted of driving around in a circle in the parking lot.  There were more people driving motorcycles than cars.

Finally it was time to go to the building where they handed out the licenses.  I didn't know until later when Walter told me, that I was in line next to one of Karla's psychology teacher.  She is very nice.  She thought I was alone so she told me I could go through the process with her and her partner.  I told her my friend was waiting outside.  She explained to me all of the things on my personal information card that I didn't understand.  For example, my face is described as eagle shaped.  (I don't really like that description.)  They used a strange word that I don't remember to describe my hair - I'm guessing it means brunette.  They got my eyes right this time, although Karla's teacher said they look green to her.  And they wrote that my mouth was "grande" (big).  Hahaha!  They got that one right.  :)

The line for the data input was immense and I was disappointed because I learned that we had to get our pictures taken again.  We were told to bring one with us and I liked the way mine had turned out.  I thought that was going to be on my license so I wasn't focused on looking presentable when I got ready at 5:30 this morning.  Karla's teacher told me not to worry, it's only the smile that matters.  She was a cool lady.

I watched her leave with her license as I had my photo taken.  Then everything went crazy.  I don't know how she got out of there so soon.  People were yelling that they had been waiting hours.  The waiting area was jammed with people, many very frustrated.  Walter said there is nothing we can do but wait.  I am learning patience from Walter and Jairo.

Finally at about 2:30 they announced that if you had been there since morning you could go to a special window to check and see if your license was ready because it was so loud some people couldn't hear their names being announced.

There was a crowd of about 15 people who all thought they needed to be first in line.  I realized that being a foreigner usually helps me in this sort of situation, but today it didn't seem to matter.  I made a vow to myself to be more grateful in the future when exceptions are made for me because I don't look the same as everyone else.  Some guy came and brought food to the workers.  I was starving!  When  I saw the food I said I was starving.  The lady next to me said she was ready for lunch.  I told her I was ready for breakfast and lunch since I had been there since 7 a.m.  She told people around me that I had been there since 7 a.m. and they made space for me in the front.  From that viewpoint I could see that the computers were crashing about every 3 minutes, so they could only print about 3 cards and then they would have to reboot the computer.  Finally the same man who had taken my picture looked up.  He noticed me and motioned that he would do mine soon and asked me to wait.  I gave him a thumbs up and a smile, which was hard at that point.  Sure enough, I saw my name and face pop up on the computer.  The lady next to me got excited for me.  They printed out the card and passed it through the window, I thanked them and left.

So I am officially official.  The only thing I still need to do is get the car in my name, but a friend has his lawyer working on that.

Last night Karla asked me if I would want to go away for Jose's birthday in two weeks rather than celebrating here.  I told her I would LOVE to!  She is working out the details.  That will be so fun!

Yesterday when I got home I followed my landlord's brother up the driveway.  He and his wife, Milhem (spelled phonetically because I don't know how to spell her name), stopped and talked for a while.  They are always full of good information.  I am still not quite ready for new tires on my car, according to Gerry, but when I am they know where I can get good tires at a great price.  They also said that when I am in the city I need to be very careful about mosquito bites because dengue is going around.  If I get a pain in my eyes or a fever I need to call Milhem immediately at any hour of the day or night because it must be treated right away.  They know a good Dr who knows exactly how to treat dengue.  And it is not spread in dirty water, it is in clean sitting water.  Never knew that.  Gerry says it is supposed to be too cold for the dengue mosquito to live up here in the mountains, but he personally thinks it is possible.  He described it to me so I'll know what to look for - a mosquito with white stripes on its wings.  I told them I have never seen that bug before, but assured them if I feel sick I will call them immediately.

They also said that we are getting a new neighbor.  They told me who he is, but I can't remember.  Anyway he is someone REALLY important.  That is why yesterday I saw a caravan of cars with police motorcycles and flashing lights pass the house.  Apparently this important person bought the property next to ours.  Gerry said the important man already plans to clean up the spot where people dump garbage on the side of the road.  Gerry is very excited about that.  He also said they are going to improve the actual roads, which are so rutted right now from the rainy season that it is hard to drive on them.  Milhem said the security of this whole area should be better.  Maybe some day I will be able to go for a walk by myself!

Within the past couple of days some huge birds have moved into the trees outside my bedroom.  They look a lot like eagles, but not quite.  I think they are doing spring cleaning because they keep dropping huge things on my roof and on the ground.  They just broke my landlords' clothes line.

Well that's today's news from Honduras!  Thank you for joining me.