Yesterday was "one of those days" for me. I got up at 4:45 to take Bernice to a doctor's appointment. Yes, you read right, 4:45 in THE MORNING. Let's hear it for socialized medicine. We had to get to the clinic by 5:30 so she could be in line for when the doors opened at 7:00. I get to the car and Manuel is with Berenice. Why didn't I just give him the keys to the car last night? Well, I am up so I drive. When we got there, there were already about 50 people in line waiting to get a number to see the doctor. One of the things they do here is give preferential treatment to pregnant women (although that seems to be every women in Honduras) and seniors. Berenice's number was 2. I thought, great, we can get in and get out. WRONG. Once they opened the doors to the clinic at 7:00, we filed in and sat on benches in a very narrow hallway. And we sat. And we sat. And we sat. A nurse was sitting in the room where Bernice was to see her doctor and she wasn't calling anyone in for anything. By this time it is 8:00 (we had been there since 5:45). Another woman started talking to this nurse in spanish and pretty soon her voiced started to raise and she was yelling at the nurse and talking VERY fast. Obviously something was wrong. Berenice gets a disgusted look on her face and asks the nurse a question and then gets up and starts walking outside. She turns to me and says the doctor is NOT coming in today so she has to go and wait in the line outside to get ANOTHER number for a different doctor. You have got to be kidding me. Why didn't I just give Manuel the keys to the car and let him take her?? I am an idiot. Berenice goes and gets in the other very long line and when she gets up to the window, she is told she is in the wrong line. She needed to get in a different line. Berenice tells her what the problem is and the person at the window still tells her to get in the other line (the other line is for the doctor that isn't there). So she gets in the other line. she gets up to the window and the person tells her she doesn't need another number, that the other doctor there would "work her in" with the same number.
Ok. She has number 2. That would mean the doctor would take his number 1 and then the other doctor's number 1 and then number 2 and so on right? WRONG. The doctor took the first 5 of his patients and Berenice and the other women just sat there. Wow, this is going to be a long day and I have so much to do to get prepared for the next team. I told Manuel that I was going home and he could go with me and come back for Berenice (what I should have done all along. Did I mention I was an idiot?) So, I get to a light and wait for the traffic to go. I need to turn right. The traffic light changed and I turned right. I get pulled over by a police officer. He says I needed to wait to turn right. Wait for what? The second coming of Jesus? He takes my license and gives me a ticket. Here, when you get a ticket, they physically take your driver's license and then you have to go wait in a VERY long line (the norm here), pay a fine and get your license back. This is SO NOT RIGHT! I am pissed. I asked Manuel what I did wrong. He said, "nothing." He said he would have turned as well, but not if there was a policeman there. He said the police just enforce whatever they want so whenever there is a policeman in the area, he doesn't do anything. No wonder the traffic is so bad here. (again, if I would have just handed Manuel the keys, I could be in bed right now. What an IDIOT!)
Ok. I have to figure out where I need to go to get my license back. Tom calls Miguel. Miguel says he will see if he can get us a discount on the ticket. A discount???? How about not paying AT ALL since it is crap! Miguel and his family is coming to dinner anyway tonight, so we can talk about it then.
Later in the day Berenice says she needs to go to the store and so do I so Manuel, Berenice and I go to the mall to the grocery. This mall has free parking but you need to get a parking ticket stamped inside the mall or they charge you to park there. It is stupid, but hey, whatever. The FIRST thing I do is get the ticket stamped. There is a picture on the front of the machine that shows you which way you must insert your ticket. I follow the picture (You see where this is going don't you?) I try to leave the parking lot. The guy says I need to pay. I said, no, I stamped the ticket and showed him where I stamped it. He said the machine won't take it. (So what? The arm of the gate is up, all he needs to do is wave me on). He insists on making me pay. I insist that I won't. I told him I would go back and have it stamped again so I turn around and go back in; the guard was trying to give me another ticket to go in. I think the look of murder on my face prevented him from doing that. I tell Manuel to go get the ticket stamped. He does. He hands me the ticket and it is stamped in the EXACT same way I had stamped it. I told them it is the same. Manuel says, "no it isn't". Berenice says, "yes it is." so Manuel says go out a different way to a different guy. HEAVY SIGH…… So I go out a different direction and the guy just took the ticket and raised the bar to let me out. FRUSTRATING!
There is a saying here in Honduras when you have a bad day. They say "the only thing that didn't happen to me today is for a dog to pee on me." I know what they are talking about. It is fitting.
Berenice and Manuel ate dinner with us later that night. Tom announces to them that when I got home today, a dog came up and peed on me. They just looked at me and laughed. What is the number one rule on a work and witness trip??????
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