The DMV

There are some vehicles that need to be registered. Yesterday Marc found out where the DMV was and drove there and the line was so long that he did not even attempt to do anything yesterday. He said we would leave at 6:00 this morning and be the first ones in line this morning. I now retract all the things I said in a previous blog about the great state of Texas. And to my Illinois and California friends, you haven't seen anything yet. You must have copies of your driver's license, not necessarily a Honduras license, just a license and the current registration and other stuff. You don't think the DMV will make those copies do you? Conveniently, there are several copy shops across the street. I got in line and Marc went to make the copies. We had 3 vehicles to take care of, with each needing something slightly different. We needed to register our Isuzu, after having brought it in from the states. We needed to re-register a truck that has been sitting for a year and a half broken and was not registered at all last year since it was not running. And one of the Casa de Esperanza trucks had a temporary registration. In Honduras, they are several months behind in issuing plates after a car has been registered. They give you a temporary registration with an expiration date. This truck is one week away from that expiration date. Each one of these things have a different line and a different order in which to do them. And if you happen to be in the wrong line first, which we were, too bad for you for today. And trust me on this one, I am absolutely sure that woman was trained by the DMV in California. There was absolutely no computers in this office. Everything was being done by hand. And I could see a store room where old records were kept. If someone sneezed, I am quite sure that lopsided mountain of boxes would avalance and possibly bury someone alive, never to be found again.

Some kind-hearted man tried to help us. The truck that was not registered last year had to have two years worth of taxes paid on it. He took us to another office in the same building and we found out how much the taxes were. We then had to go to the bank, again, conveniently located next door, to pay the taxes. The bank did not open for 20 minutes. When it did, everyone was searched before they could go in and no cell phones are allowed inside the bank. I sat outside and read and babysat the cell phones. When Marc came out of the bank, he not only had the taxes paid, but the vehicle registered. Go figure. This probably will be the easiest of the 3 vehicles. Then we had to go back to the copy shop to get the registration laminated.

Perhaps we could have tried another line and started over for the other 2 vehicles, but I think we were banned for today anyway by that "friendly" DMV worker. We went for a cup of coffee instead and saved the other 2 registrations for another day and another adventure.

Terri