I went to bed at a decent hour Tuesday night, I knew I wanted to be up early.
I woke up at 5:45 and got up, read for a while, prayed, wrote a few letters, then had some breakfast before heading into town to renew the fitness for the truck at the police station. It had expired the week before, so is illegal to drive. A "fitness" is just a piece of paper certifying that your vehicle is fit to drive and works properly. (Once, when pulled over for a routine check I was asked to show him my fitness. I had thought he wanted me to show him that I was fit enough to drive.)
I left the house around 8:00, took a tapir to the station, arriving there at 8:10. I had enquired about renewing the fitness the week before and was told that Wednesdays and Fridays were the only available days and that I could be there by 8:00. I walked into the station and told the woman sitting there why I was there. She let me know that the guy who processed the papers I was needing didn't come until 10:00. I was a bit upset and told her of the week before and the man next to me verified my story, he must have been there when I'd been there last Thursday.
I took a tapir home and kept myself busy until 9:50 and headed back to the station, on another tapir. I arrived and there were about 10 people standing around the vehicle control place just waiting. The man still hadn't arrived. All the waiters-in-line looked so peaceful and complacent. I sat and waited with them for a while until an officer walked up to me and asked what I was there for. When I told him it was for my fitness he then let me know I had to have the vehicle with me (duh!). I told him it was already expired though and the only way to get it to the station would be illegally. He gave me that silent nod and bit of a smile. So I headed back home on a tapir. When I returned at 11:30 there were at least 20 people in the line and still no sign of the only officer who could do what we needed done. I asked them if they every became impatient or upset with the lack of responsibility and confusion that goes on in these kinds of establishments. One man said it is frustrating, but there's nothing to be done. I asked him if complaining helped. He told me to go ahead and give it a shot. I was a little peeved.
I asked the lady behind the desk (who doesn't seem to have anything to do) why the officer wasn't there. She wasn't sure. I asked if he could be called/if he had a phone number and if I could have the number. She didn't quite know how to take me and ended up saying something like "he's got a cell phone, but can't answer while driving". I was still mad so I responded, "can he pull over??" She let me know they'd try to contact him. I went back outside with the rest of the group. I wrote more letters. I was then called inside so that a head officer could explain the situation to me. It was the same story the lady had told me. They didn't know where he was, when he was actually coming, and were attempting to contact him. It was kind of sad though because the same respect would not have been paid to the other men all waiting outside. I saw what happened when a man just dared to step inside the office with his hat on. One of the women snapped at him saying something like "remove your hat when you walk in here and show respect! Wipe your feet too!!" I loved the man's response to her. He slowly took off the hat, then turned around to look at the mat-less floor behind him, turned back to her and just asked how he was supposed to wipe his feet with no mat. The scenario was interesting to observe.
After this the same officer who had kindly told me I needed my vehicle with me spotted me and asked if I'd brought it back. Since I had, he had me pull into the compound and he proceeded to check the fitness of the vehicle. That experience was just funny. What do you do when the man is telling you to turn on you "headlamps" and your "trafficators"?? I managed. Then, as he went to the rear of the vehicle he asked me to "mash the brakes". I did. No lights lit up. So, all of the waiting and running was for naught.
I asked Mrs. Katryan what to do and she sent me to an auto electrician to repair it. I went, he told me to come back at 2:00 so I did. He repaired the lights but he must have majorly messed up something else because on my way home the driving got worse and worse and it was like I was breaking all the time. It got so bad that by the end of my drive home I could only manage first gear without it completely stopping on me. I never did get that fitness.
I guess I'm posting about this to just show you some of the frustrating everyday life that people here have to go through all the time. It's no biggie if you happen to have to show up at the post office to receive a package and sit and wait for it for 2 hours. It almost seems normal and expected. The most interesting part to me is that most of the people don't bring anything to do to fill in the wasted waiting hours. There needs to be some changes around here, I just wonder who's going to do it and when it's going to be done!
I'm really anticipating coming home now. I'm savoring my last days here, but our lives have kind of just been a little crazy for the past week. I guess that's because we lost a lot of the normal routine when the Hunters left. We're just trying to figure out where to live, how to get places, and what to eat now! The people have been very good to us though. I'm so thankful for that. Just last night one of the members from the church invited us into her home. One thing she mentioned was that "if I had my daughter far away from home I would want someone to take care of her and love her, plus, we're sisters in Christ!" It was really fun for me to see that.
Okay, I should get going. I'm at the Centre right now working on typing up the book list for Seema. It's the list of all the raunchy books we burned. I'll let you know the count once I finish typing it up.
~Ellen~
The people have been blessing us immensely with food and hospitality. Mandy (right) and her sister-in-law Raishma came over and cooked for us one day some guyanese specialties- I forget the names of what they made, you'd have to ask Ellen because they're funky. But, the one was like a breaded mashed potato. Like bread stuffed with mashed potato and fried. It was good. The other was a banana bread-ish dough that you drop in oil and fry, so it kind of looks like doughnuts. Yummy.
Ellen and I enjoyed it.
Pastor Katryan took us out on Tuesday and we visited MANY places here. One place was the school he designed and was the architect for. It is a nursery school, so 4-7 year olds come here. They are the cutest things you ever saw, especially in their uniforms. They were shy at first, but once they warmed up to me and I went down on their level, they loved me.
I will miss beautiful scenes like this. I am soaking every chance I get to view God's beauty. I took this picture while sitting in the car waiting for Pastor Katryan as he was doing business with someone. I think coconut trees are one of my favorite things to look at. They are so relaxing and exotic looking...
Ellen with Shannon. I posted Shannon with me, so I figured You'd like to see Ellen with this adorable little girl. Off to the market to pick up some last gifts to bring home, then cleaning our house all day.
