In a Five Step Process, We Have Seven More To Go: Day 3

(continued from the last two days’ story)

 

I must say that DRJ is taking a morning course at the theological graduate school, which meets every morning; therefore, all of our work in the sale of the car is limited to the afternoons. If we were dealing with a whole day of office visits the number of days could be decreased, yet the process would no doubt be the same.

 

Day 3 was productive in that we accomplished something positive, yet only after another step backwards, so in the end we are right where we were after Day 2. You see, one of the most difficult things about getting anything done here is that the process and requirements change all the time (seemingly dependant on who is in the office that day). Because of this, you must learn the process by doing the wrong thing first and making corrections as you go. So, we arrived at Kaliti in the early afternoon and took our completed document straight to window 9. Pleased with the witness signatures, he asked “where is your stamp?” Now, you must know that Ethiopians love stamps of all kinds. Usually it is ink stamps that make a document official or not (for example, our power of attorney document has 5 different stamps on it). But they also love “lick it and stick it” type stamps which is what he wanted here. I can’t understand the purpose of sticking these stamps onto documents other than that they are something else that they can charge for along the way. So, we went to the information lady who said that stamps can be bought at window 2. We bought our stamp and stuck it on and headed back to window 16 again (which today was much less crowded). The man behind the counter looked at our papers for about 4 seconds and quickly gave them back saying “the power of attorney document must be in Amharic, not English, because all of our filing is done in Amharic.” Now, this is kinda funny because the official language of government is supposed to be English, but I guess this hasn’t trickled down to Kaliti yet. “However, because the power of attorney is such an important document, the translation must be done by an official, certified translator.” That meant that we needed to drive across town (because in Addis Ababa, if you have a trade, you normally set up shop right next to everybody else with that same trade…that way people know where to find you). It should have been a quick drive there and back to continue the process that day. But of course that didn’t include the road construction and resulting traffic jam between here and there. Eventually, we arrived, chose a translation office to use, waited about 30 minutes as they produced a translation and then again as DRJ demanded it to be redone with corrections in spelling. By the time we had paid our bill, the road transport office was closed, so we drank a macchiato together and headed home for the day. The end of Day 3 found us with a freshly translated power of attorney document and ready to return the next day to find out the next mistake that needs correction. Have you noticed that we only learn of one mistake at a time? That’s part of the fun…I guess.