Driver’s License Drama, Part II: The Saga Continues…

Who successfully passed her written driver’s test and jumped through all the appropriate communist government hoops?  This gal! 

I’m officially licensed to drive in Ecuador! Woohoo! 

So here’s the deal.  We submitted all of our paperwork to the transit authority on August 24^th which was the first step in getting Ecuador to recognize our American licenses.  The whole reason we did this was to avoid having to go to driving school…a part of my teen years I wasn’t anxious to re-live.  Everybody’s got to go to driving school here. Whether you’re 18 or 80, if it’s your first time getting a license, you have to do it!

Anyway, they accepted our papers (translations, copies of translations, seals, stamps, and signatures, and the like), and a few weeks later told us we needed more papers, and so forth.  FINALLY, a couple of weeks ago we got word that our paperwork was approved but that we had to make a 3 hour trip to another city to finish the process.  Apparently, they only have the “system” to do these things for foreigners in a couple cities in the whole country…surprise surprise! So, after studying our brains out to take the written exam, we made our way up to Ambato last week.  Upon arriving we were told, “oh, you can’t do that today, come back tomorrow.” The “Doctor” wasn’t there to administer the “medical” test required before we could proceed.

I’m using quotes because my dead grandmother could administer this medical test.

They make you look into a viewfinder to see if you're colorblind. That's it!! This requires a medical doctor... apparently.

After studying some more, we got up yesterday, caught a bus at 6am and headed to Ambato again, determined this time to come home fully licensed to drive.  This time we got there and found that while I was perfectly fine to proceed with the process, Andy was not…  They took one look at his cane and told him he couldn’t get the license transferred from the States, but would have to get a handicapped license.  It didn’t matter that he’s been driving with a spinal injury for almost 20 years, safely, I might add.   And it didn’t matter that his home country said he was fine to drive; they want him to get his special license.  Guess what that means? He has to take driver’s ed… again, over 20 years later!  Could they have told him this 3 months ago when we gave them our paperwork? Uh, yeah.

Honestly, this will probably be a blessing because people here BEG to get handicapped status.  In addition to many other benefits, you automatically get a 50% discount on ALL transit, including international flights! That means the next time you see us we’ll have paid half price for Andy’s ticket and we’ll have saved a BUNCH of money!

So, while I didn’t have to go to driver’s ed. again, I think I’d have been better off if I had.  This process took me 3 full months, and Andy can get his classes over with in one weekend.  Lesson learned?

…probably not.

On the plus side, I have a pretty cool license, and am legal to drive on two continents! I'd say I came out on top :)

Let's Do the Time Warp

          Sometimes I think living here is, in a lot of ways, more like living in the US in 1960 than in 2012.  It’s not really like this in the big cities (they have something very much like a chain of small wal-mart stores, or maybe a regular Kroger), but here at the portal to the Amazon jungle, and the foothills of the Andes Mountains, it’s a bit like stepping into a time-warp.  There is no “one-stop shopping” available. If I want meat, I go to the butcher.  If I want bread, I go to the baker.  Lightbulbs? Light bulb store…  You don’t buy new shoes when they break (not that people don’t…), you go to the shoe repair guy on the corner (he’ll fix your leather goods too!).  There are shoe-shine men, and children, everywhere, and the seamstress down the street will make anything you show her.  Every door in our house was made by a carpenter, and he made all the furniture for our neighbors.  To top it all off, teenagers everywhere walk the streets singing “Stand By Me,” by Ben King, in English. 

98% of them have no idea what the words mean.  

If it weren’t for the cell phones and internet cafes, I’d think I stepped through a wormhole.  Since the mindset for pre-packaged everything a la USA style doesn’t really exist here, this means I have to do everything from scratch.  Now, there are some major benefits to this.      

1    My cooking skills have improved greatly – my husband even brags to friends.

2    I’ve found ways to cook pretty much any type of American food we crave, so we’re instantly less homesick than a lot of other people.

3    I’ve got some sweet ideas for homemade Christmas presents for other gringos (white-people).  What American wouldn’t like English toffee and a kit for s’mores?  (graham crackers don’t exist here, but I found a recipe!!!) 

4    I’ve become reacquainted with a sewing machine – I even made some cool cloth diapers for Jude that will grow with him. 

The downsides?  It can take me a couple hours to make dinner every night…sometimes I’m working on it off and on all day (when breads, etc. are involved). 

Also, I’ve learned the brilliance of cooking with real cream and butter….

…our waistlines are the major victims here.

 

          My conclusion?  I’ll take real food with lots of exercise over your canned cream of chicken soup any day.  And, I’m pretty proud of those pillows I made for our couch – they’re way cooler than the ones I would’ve bought at IKEA if we were in Ohio right now.

 Ok, that’s a little bit of a lie, but they’re still pretty impressive if I do say so myself ;)

The 60’s are pretty cool…I think we’ll stay a while.