our dozen beautiful feet

The day after I submitted our police clearance certificate application, someone from the wrong police station called and said they’d received our application, but since it was the wrong station, they were forwarding it to the right one.  That was a week ago and we hadn’t heard anything.  So this afternoon I called today to the main station and asked them what the status of our application was.  The man quickly informed me it had been forwarded to the right station, and I should go there and check.   So I went there. : )  The officer at the front desk listened, made a phone call, then said, “Here is your constable’s number.  Go home, call him and tell him you’ve reached, and he’ll come.”  Well, okay! So I came home and called.  He said he was arriving in five minutes.  So we scrambled to pick the house up, get the kids a bit settled, and waited to see what was going to happen. Oh, and I put on some chai. : ) So they arrived, two of them....

Paul went yesterday out to the outskirts of our city to visit with a friend.  This friend told him a lot of really funny cross-cultural stories, but this one... I just can’t not share it. : ) He, let’s call him Don, said that he had a friend come in from his village to visit.  Let’s call the friend Sam.  So Don shows Sam his room.  While settling in, he looks in the bathroom and sees something he’s never seen before.  A white bowl with a lid, and a button that when pushed, swirls the water around.  When Sam goes out, he asks Don, “What is that thing in the bathroom?  The bucket with the water that swishes when you push the button?”  Don says, “Oh, that must be one of these new electrical washing machines.  You get some powdered soap from the market and put it inside, then put your clothes inside, close the lid, and push the button.  After some time, your clothes will be clean.”   So while Sam was out that day, he picked up ...

So this morning I tried again!  I went back to the DCP office and thankfully, there was a field cop there doing some paperwork who spoke great English.  He told me to fill out an application.  Which meant handwrite it on a piece of blank paper. So I wrote what he told me to write.  Then I had to go get a postal order for each application.  Once that was done, he told one of clerks in the office to take it and get it done.  This clerk happened to be there yesterday and said, “I told her yesterday she had to go to the FRO.” and said he wouldn’t take it.  So I called the man at the FRO, and handed the phone over. :) After a few minutes of conversation, he hung up and told the field cop something.  The field cop told me to follow him.  I thought the phone call would be the end of it.  Nope.  Now he was taking me to see the superintendent of police.  Niiiiice.  So I waited. And waited.  Finally, he called me in.  N...