November 2, 2009

• Driver’s License Day!

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  **This post was written last week…..still no internet in the house, but it seems to be working in the office which is a bonus!
  

  
  

  So amazingly enough we’ve been in Botswana long enough to need to renew our Botswana Diver’s License!  Yes, it’s been over 5 years and I honestly am not sure where the time went!  I remember when I received my license here looking at the expiration date and wondering if Kev and I would still be here……after all we were just new to the field and well, I wasn’t quite sure how long we would last.

   

  God is so good…..He knew we’d be here for that expiration date! 

   

  With October quickly coming to a close (I mean really…..where did 2009 go?) we realized that our registration on our truck and our licenses were getting ready to expire.  A visit to the Transport office in Maun always gets the same response from people….a rolling of the eyes and a…….”Uggggg”  (For those of you who wonder….that means, “Oh man, I have to go to the Transport office!”)  Two places in Maun will make me grind my teeth……Immigration and Transport.  It’s tedious and almost always means a very long wait. Did I mention that it’s October and over 100 degrees almost every day?

   

  Kev went on Monday as I woke up late and didn’t want to delay. He is also heading to the bush with our interns this weekend and so he had to have both of those things done for road blocks.  He got there at 7:15am and was number 68 on the list.  He quickly got his eye test done and waited.  Three hours later (which really is great timing!  I know you think I am joking, but I am not, three hours isn’t bad!) he walked out with the registration for the truck and his new license good till 2014! 

   

  We decided that I should go ahead and get the process done as well since Kev had some “short cuts” for me.  Gotta love Kev…..always thinking way ahead of the game!  He not only got the paperwork for me, but woke up at 5 AM and signed my name on the transport list! (Yes, there are people waiting that early!)  I would have been lucky #1, but I had to also get my eye test and we didn’t know if they would allow me to cut back into the line.  He signed me up at #20.  I arrived to a crowd of people and went strait to the eye examiner.  I was #2.  After I finished with a pass I headed to the line and found that they were on #17!  Score!  Five minutes later my name was called and I was taken into the building with about 10 others.  The door was shut and locked behind us and we waited on long benches.  Three people before me and then it was my turn.  I was feeling pretty good that I would be out of there by 8:30am, when I noticed that everything stopped.  People were getting antsy on the benches and lots of Setswana was being spoken.  (Yes, after 5 years I still don’t know much, but I knew something was going on!)  The lady then made an announcement in Setswana and everyone moaned or said, “Eeish!”  Then the young man behind the counter looked at me and smiled and said, “Mma, our system is down…..not sure when it’s coming back, but it’s down at Gabs too…..you have to just wait.”  Doh!!!! So close!  I decided to just wait it out for a bit.  After all, I was in the building and I could at least see and hear what was going on.  I chatted with a young girl next to me for awhile which helped pass the time (and hot!).  I find it’s very easy to strike up conversations with the people here.  Meanwhile the server went up and down and people said, “Ah” “Eeish mona!” and grumbled when it would go down again.  At about 9:30am, the system went back up and the three people in front of me went and then myself.  After I paid, got my paper for the actual license card, the system went down again!  I just squeaked thru!  I got my license card (after many attempts to take a decent photo because I am so white it kept washing my face out which received lots of laughs from the transport guy who said, “I guess I need to put it on “white lady” setting”…..thanks! ha!) and was back home by 10am!  Had there been no problems I would have been home by 8:30am, but I still considered it a huge success as I accomplished it all! 

   

  And this time when I looked at my license expiration date of 2014, I didn’t think to myself, “I wonder if we’ll still be here”, I thought, “Shew, glad I don’t have to do that for another 5 years!” 

   

  Yes……Botswana is home!  

  • 3:46 am
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