He was here first

Yesterday in the impound yard, to finally get my truck back, I was shocked by these words, “He was here first.”

I try not to be a skeptic of the Mexican culture, but one thing that has always bothered me is the total inability to make a line and wait their turn. The way it works here is you have to be the first person with your hand on the counter. Even though there was a sign that said “Form One Line,” and I was attempting to do so, a man walked in and pushed his way to the front. He proceeded to mark his territory by placing his hand on the counter. After one of the attendants finished with a customer, I proceeded to the counter. That attendant left and we all had to wait a while (no surprise).

When the lone worker got ready to take the next customer, she turned to the man who forced his way to the counter. I was ready to speak up and make a show since I had been waiting 10 minutes longer than that man when he said to the attendant, “He was here first.” I was absolutely shocked! I made sure to thank the man for his kindness.

In my three plus years in this country, I think that was the very first time this has happened.

Missionary Talks 33: Chris Miller

This was an enjoyable interview. Chris and I worked together in a ministry for several years and we have remained good friends though distance has kept us from seeing each other for most of a decade.

The audio quality on this interview is much better than any other phone interview I have done. My setup is the same as it was for the interview with Erin Rigsby the week before. The difference was that she was on a cell phone and it apparently has a compressor built into the phone or the cell network. There was no variety in the volume of her voice, the compressor amplified everything as loud as possible. It made the file a bit more difficult to work with.

I had some electronic noise in this latest interview with Chris but I was able to pull most of it out. I am very pleased with the sound quality this time around.

Spot: Feb 2007-Sept 2007

This week saw the passing away of our pet hamster Spot. He seems to have died of an illness or natural causes. He had been well and chipper early in the afternoon. Later that day (Wednesday) he was breathing hard and his heart rate was elevated. He did not physically respond when petted.

It was pretty obvious that he was not going to make it and within 15 minutes of noticing his distress he had died.

My wife and I are not really pet people and this is our children’s first pets (the 2 hamsters). We did have some fish a few years ago, but you don’t get real personally attached to a fish.

It is our children’s first dealings with death on this level. Our daughter does not understand much at all of what went on, but our son was quite close to the little fellow. We still have Fluffy to give us solace.

The fallout from the falldown

I got to the judicial building this morning, after having gone back to the police station where I was held last night. This was to get my truck out of impound. I knew that I needed copies of all my documentation and worked to get it together. There was one paper that I could not find and figured it must have been in the truck. I did have a copy of it though.

At the judicial building I was to find out if I could get my truck out and what further proceedings needed to take place. I expected to go in there and find that the family was bringing a lawsuit against me and the taxi driver. Instead, the tables were turned. They offered me the chance to sue the boy for any damages to my vehicle and expenses incurred. I did not see any damages on my truck and the expenses incurred for having my truck towed and impounded will not be too significant. I suspect less than $100. This was simply a terrible accident and I have no plans to sue.

Since I did not have the one paper, I had to get permission to go to the impound yard and retrieve it. I would have to be accompanied by an employee of the government to look for the paper. Just after I had waited for 1.5 hours in the office and they finally got all the paperwork in place to go look for it, my wife called and said she found it at home. So that the office could justify all the paperwork, and so that they would not be in trouble for having gone through the process to get permission, we still went through all the motions. I went with them to the impound yard (15 minutes away) and we “looked through” all the papers in the truck and did not find it.

I returned home to get the papers and grab a quick interview for Missionary Talks. I was also told that the paper had to be translated into Spanish and notarized. It was then 3:00 and I took everything to a friend’s house to start the translation. By 6:00 I had the paperwork in hand, in Spanish and under the seal of a Notary. And, $30 poorer for the process.

I understood that the impound yard would be open 24 hours a day and that I could go get my truck tonight. I returned to the judicial building, which is open 24 hours, with my family. I finally got to give my official statement and signed it along with giving them a nice thumb print.

The impound office was closed by then, but I now have all the paperwork to get my truck out in the morning. I spent approximately 11 hours in the process of all this today and I still don’t have my truck. Furthermore, I will have to pay extra because it stayed in there another day. But with that, it should all be over. Whew!

The boy is still in the hospital and is pretty badly hurt, but not at all fatal.

It wasn’t Holiday Inn Express

A bizarre turn of events landed me in jail this evening. Yes. Really. For several hours.

I was taking a group of people to church tonight when we pulled away from a traffic light. I felt something bump or push the back of my truck, but it was not anything strong like another car hitting me. I pulled away and looked back in my mirror. To my horror there was a person lying in the road. I made the corner and came back around to the place where all the excitement was.

I cannot give a detailed account of what really happened because I did not see anything. The 16 year old boy is stable and has some injuries, but not life threatening. Apparently he was hit by the taxi beside me and knocked into me.

It took over an hour to get everything to a point where myself and the other driver got hauled off to jail. We waited for a while and were finally taken to the doctor so that we could have our breath and urine tests. I have never had a breath test before. No problem. The urine test was not so easy. I was not concerned about the results, but having the female nurse stand there and watch me give the sample gave me a bit of stage fright. I was instructed to return to the holding cell and drink water until I was ready. Needless to say, I am well hydrated. The second go around I had a male nurse.

Me and the other driver were finally released about 7 hours after it all started. We were released with no traffic violations. But there is still a probability of a lawsuit from the family. At least I get to sleep in my own hammock for the rest of tonight before I have to face that. Believe me, the holding cell in a Mexican jail is not a Holiday Inn Express!