It’s Saturday morning and I’m waiting for the second load of clothes to finish so I can get them on the line and get the third and final load for the day started. Wash day really does mean a whole day here. I don’t want to leave our clothes out on the line if we’re not here so we’re pretty much tied to the house on the days I do laundry. And because we’ve been gone all week chasing paper, I decided I had to spend a whole day at home today and get caught up on the wash.
Regarding our paper chase…I can’t believe I left out of our timeline, one of our key events that took place on Wednesday – the fact we had to have the left front tire patched. Not just once but 5 times!!! Seems as though we had picked up some tiny little shards of wire somewhere and each one had neatly punctured the tire. (Note: I have written about the tire changing place before and because we no longer have pictures of it (they were on my old laptop that the robbers took), I will have to refer you to the blog archives of 2008. Unfortunately, the 2008 archives are not divided up in the months like I would like but if you’re that interested in seeing the tire changing place, you can go to those archives and find the one entitled “Lord of the rims…” which is dated 5-30-08 and you will find some pictures there.) After about 45 minutes at the tire repair shop, we were on our way again with a tire that probably had more patch than tread!
Needing the tire patched wasn’t a surprise. It had been leaking for some time and the need for getting air in it was becoming an every 3-4 day occurrence. The roads here in Nicaragua are not the best, to say the least. No matter what state you live in or how bad your roads are, if you gave us 24 hours in a car here, I think we could bring you to the point of appreciation for your own teeth-rattling byways. These are the pits…literally! Most of the missionaries here tell us they have to replace tires annually and if they work in the more rural areas, they also have to have new shocks every year or two. We knew that obeying the Lord might take us down some bumpy roads but we had no idea just how fundamentally true that would turn out to be!
Okay, now back to our mini-series of In Pursuit of Paperwork…Episode 3. Thursday morning. We received a phone call from Roger saying he would take the bus to Managua and meet us at 8:30 so that we could continue the process of trying to get the car paperwork cleared up so that we could begin the application to leave the country with the car! It’s a good thing we started this when we did…our time is ticking away before our visa extensions expire and we have to leave.
Jim went outside to put our stuff in the car and lo and behold, what did he discover? Our car listing in a most pronounced way towards the front left portion of the car…h-m-m…how could that be? Didn’t we just have that tire repaired the day before? How was it that it could be so flat just one day later? I guess that pulling out the shards of metal served only to let more air out…silly me…I thought the patch job was supposed to keep the air in!
Thankfully, we were to meet Roger at the corner gas station where the bus would drop him off. While we waited, we were able to fill our floppy front tire with air…once more. Since the bakery is very close to the station, the three of us decided to grab something from there. We all felt the need for a little bakery boost…Roger had to ride the bus from Jinotepe and we were suffering from a little tire deflation ourselves. Getting our nice, warm bagel treat (which we weren’t able to have earlier in the week) helped to redeem the morning’s little setback.
After dropping Pixie off at Susanna’s, we were on our way in to Managua where we first dropped off Roger’s newsletter to once again be copied. Seems there had been a problem with the copies from the day before so he was giving it another shot. Leaving there, we headed back down toward the tax assessment place. We had to stop at the corner copy place near there to once again get copies made. There was already a small cluster of people waiting to have their own documents copied.
We took our place in the non-existent line and waited patiently. Not so some other folks. It was interesting to watch the traffic mentality of “me first” being played out in the group of us waiting for our turn. The majority of those waiting were fine but occasionally, someone would come up, squeeze through to get up to the counter and want to be waited on. To the credit of the two guys working there, they would tell them that there were others who were there first. No one seemed to be embarrassed or angry at this “place-putting”. They would just wait, without budging from the counter, while the employees worked around them, reaching past them to get the next person’s copies. Really interesting and pretty entertaining…I love people watching!
Finally, it was our turn and the same serious young man who had helped us a few days prior, helped us again. We had to have quite a few copies made this time and he listened carefully as Roger told him which sides of which documents needed to be copied. He intently began the process of making all our copies. When he finally completed them and Jim was paying for them, he asked if we were missionaries. Roger affirmed that we were and the young man broke in to a great smile, saying he, too, was a believer. Roger shaking his hand, asked him his name. And so, it is with great pleasure that I can say that if you, too, are a follower of Jesus Christ, that one day, when the Lord has called us all home, you will be able to meet our brother, Alejandro, who demonstrates Colossians 3:23-24 which says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” You’ll know him immediately, he’s the one with the great smile…
As we were going back to our car, we stopped at the next little “store” two doors down from the copy place. There was a man sitting out front in a chair that had spoken to us when we got out of the car and Roger visited with him for a minute, but I had not paid any attention to what his sign said until we began to conduct business with him. He was a lawyer and a notary and was going to take care of certifying the copies we needed for the tax people. How convenient! This was all done for only 100 cords – about $5.oo.
Of course, he graciously offered me his chair which looked a little dilapidated, but I declined as I was too interested in looking at the stuff he had for sale in his little open window of his office. He had passport covers, a few necklaces, bottles of white glue, a tie, some ink pens, a few ancient looking pairs of glasses, and several other things. Quite the entrepreneur. He also advertised that he made copies there and told us that if we ever had problems with the place on the corner that he would be happy to take care of us. We thanked him, paid what we owed him, did the hand-shaking thing and got back in the car and ready to tackle the next step, as he was ready to flag down his next customer. I wish I would have thought to take pictures of these places…maybe I can remember when we go back that way next time.
As we were pulling away from the curb, I realized that the whole row of little stores and shacks set up along that street, all had signs indicating they were lawyers and notaries. Not one of them had posh offices with beautiful and ornately carved furniture or 4 foot tall flower arrangements. No…these guys were literally on the street, trying to drum up business…not quite the proverbial “ambulance chasers” but obviously ready and willing to take the next case with cash in hand.
The next stop was the tax assessment office…this was the same place we had come to a few days prior. This time, all our paperwork was in order, or so we hoped. We went in to the office where there were two chairs with hand-made signs on them. One sign indicated that the sign-in book which lay in the seat was for those who were there to be assessed for their vehicles. The other chair had a similar sign and book only it was for property…I’m assuming like houses and such. Roger signed us in the vehicle book and we took our chairs to wait our turn, while Roger ran down the hall to purchase the required stamps we needed to accompany our paperwork.
While he was gone, it gave me time to scope out the room. It was nice and cool…almost cold…with two big air conditioners running. The room was practically bare with only two men working. Each had a dirty and somewhat banged up desk with a few office supplies on each. There was only one 4 drawer file cabinet in the corner…neither of the men had any additional cabinets or tables of any sort and so their paperwork was either stacked on their desks or on the floor next to them. There was an empty desk with paperwork stacked on the floor behind it. That was it.
It was actually pretty typical of so many of the different kinds of offices we’ve been in the last 9 months and yet, it never ceases to amaze me just how bare-bones the workers’ environments are here. No soft music playing in the background, no family pictures, no copies of famous artwork, no cutsie cartoons posted anywhere, no copy machines, computers or printers. Nothing but a person working with the minimum amount of supplies at an old outdated banged up metal desk…in a freezing office. Work here is serious business in every sense.
After another 30 minutes or so of waiting, our name was finally called. Kooor-tees. Yep, that’s us. Actually this process went pretty smoothly. The man asked a few questions, verified our documents, checked our passports and okayed that step which moved us to the next step of the valuation of our vehicle. Two different inspectors, a man and a woman, came out and first of all, once again verified the car’s id numbers against all the paperwork. Then they basically gave the engine compartment a once-over, looked inside and all around our car and told us we could come back Monday after 2:00 p.m. to pick up the completed evaluation and pay our taxes then.
Roger asked if we could call first to make sure it was ready before we made a trip all the way over there. The man said they didn’t have a phone. Roger kept talking with him and as we waited, he followed the man inside. The guy gave Roger his card with his own private cell phone number and told him that he could call him directly on Monday before we made the trip. A nice man and a nice gesture.
We then left there, with our hands tied again on the process until we get Monday’s paperwork back. Roger graciously agreed to go with us to get new tires and so we headed over to Price Smart. We just figured it would be easier to just go there and buy them instead of looking all over the place for tires. We know they carry fairly good tires and the price is about as good as we were going to find for heavy duty tires and even though it was an unexpected expense, it was something we had to do. Thankfully, they had two of the kind we needed and we only had to wait about 30 minutes or so to get in to get them put on.
Buying new tires is one of those things I am just not too crazy about doing. For one thing, only one tire is bad but we need to buy two. Who made up that rule? GoodYear, Firestone, Michelin? Secondly, prices are ridiculous and then you have to wade through all the various types of tread designed for various uses, the different sizes, the different numbers. It’s like you have to be a retired CIA Code-breaker to just figure out what you need. Buying a tire is a much more complicated process than simply saying, “Hello. I have a flat and I need a new tire…I think I would like something round, sturdy and in black. I'm really not interested in designer labels. I think I'm looking for something simple and classic. Do you have anything that would fit?” Oh, no. That’s too simple. If I'm going to be having to spend that much time in buying something, I think I would rather be looking at shoes.
Enough tire tirade. It took about another 30 minutes for the actual putting on of the tires and we were ready to go, riding high on our new tread-rich tires which hopefully, were going to hold air for longer than a week.
We then went to pick up Roger’s copies at the copy place. They were ready and this time, everything looked good. That was a plus for the day. We then headed over to Roger’s mechanic and sure enough, his car was ready. No crowded micro bus ride home to Jinotepe that night for that guy…he had his own wheels, once again and I’m sure he was more than ready for that little luxury.
So, now we’re all taking a paperwork hiatus this weekend…but Monday’s a new day which I’m sure will present new challenges. Until then, we’re enjoying our time at home. Laundry’s done and Jim’s working yet again on another leaky toilet. That’s right – another leaky toilet. It is always something, isn’t it? We’re like bad soap operas! So, with that being said, don’t miss the next installment to find out the answers to such burning questions like…will Jim ever get the right part to fix the leaky toilet? Will Roger throw up his hands in despair at trying to help Jim and Lynne? Will he and his wife, Rhonda move and not tell Jim and Lynne? Will Lynne say “enough is enough” and buy bus tickets to Costa Rica? Yes, it’s always something but we love having you join us as we all see how Our World Turns. Till next time.
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