Slow days

I must be getting used to the slow unproductive life here in Central America because it took a visitor to prompt me to even think of writing this blog. I’ve said before that we in the United States are very much into productivity. Now, productivity is not a bad thing I’d say. I love being productive, getting things done is what drives me to some degree. But when I came to Nicaragua as former Project Engineer, I had certain expectations that were completely blown out the water. I really had to learn to be content with less forward motion.

For example.....

Allow me to walk you through a somewhat typical day that occurred this past week. My friend and pastor Jeff was in town and we had just dropped off a repaired radiator to be reinstalled in Vision Nicaragua’s little Toyota Tacoma truck and we were heading out of Chichigalpa to run another errand. We were stopped by the local Police at one of their many random checkpoints. The police notice that Mario’s safety inspection is out of date and decide that the truck should be locked up in the local baseball stadium until we get our inspection taken care of. A friendly neighborhood Policias escorts us to the stadium and Mario jumps on a bus to Chinandega to begin sorting things out while Jeff and I walk back to the village (this takes a good 45 minutes). Later that day; I ride my bike back into town where we pick up the little truck and then go run the rest of Mario’s errands and call it a day.

Wednesday morning comes and we’re off early to the Police Station to get some papers and then on to pay for the inspection at the bank (b/c why would you actually pay for an inspection at the inspection station?). Upon arriving at the Inspection Station, they inform us that they can’t do anything until 2:30 in the afternoon when the power comes back on. This is starting to cause problems now because we have 8 of the “sick men” to take to the doctor at 2:30 in the afternoon.

2:00 PM: We load 11 of the sick men into our little truck and take them to their appointment. Once again we go to the Inspection Station where we sit around waiting for an hour and then back to the Police Station where we’re sent out to get something else. We continue to come and go from the Police Station three more times in pursuit of the new piece of the puzzle. Each time we come to the station; they send us out for one more thing. Why couldn’t they just give us the comprehensive list the first time? Uggggh! It’s like they enjoy watching you crumble in frustration. We finally get everything we need and just barely make it to the stadium by 5:00 pm when the guards leave their post. Whew! What a day and a half! And do you want to know the worst part of all of this running around for an inspection? NOTHING WAS EVER INSPECTED!