Paperwork Nightmare

I have a lot of respect for people here. And I'll tell you why....

Since Elena was born, we've been attempting to get her birth certificate etc. Oh my! what a crazy ordeal. Driving to different offices, talking to people who send us somewhere else, standing in line only to be told we don't have the right paperwork. Arg! Well, that's just life. It kind of reminds me of California DMV. We finally were able to get her certificate after a few weeks, praise God!

The next piece of documentation we need for her is her Bolivian identity card, her carnet. Carl went to the main office a few days ago and waited in line to confirm what sort of documents he needed. After running around, making sure everything was in order, off the three of us went. From the advice of a friend, we took along a few more documents and left early. Well, we thought it was early....

At 7:45 the line into the Transito building was 2 blocks long. The office only starts to let people in at 8:00. And since we had to be there in line with Elena in arms, we just decided that we'd try another day, even earlier.....

I suggested that Carl and take advantage of our "free" morning and go for a breakfast date. Well, while we were dining, a friend, Charis, was also at the restaurant. We told her of our attempt and she told us that we should ask our mutual friend, Rebeca who is a lawyer, to help us out. Duh!? Can't believe that I didn't think of that before. At noon hour pick-up, I talked to Rebeca and she said she could come the next day with us.

The next morning, we made our way to the Transito. This is the office where the carnets are processed for all of Santa Cruz and surrounding areas. That makes about 2 million people who need to be served. And since people have to renew their identity card every 6 years, we calculated that the Transito would have to process 1000 cards/people per day. That doesn't include the new applications for babies. 1000 people a day in a building that has the capacity of getting maybe 250 to 400 applications through.

That place was a crazy zoo of people in this dark and dingy building. It was hot and stuffy and as I looked around and saw all the people, patiently waiting, I felt sorry for all the mothers with young children and the elderly. There weren't enough seats for even half of the people who needed them. Interestingly enough, no one was yelling about why it was taking so long or how it was their right to be served. Everyone just accepted the process and waited. For that, I respected them. I wouldn't have that kind of patience. Maybe because in North America, we are so used to being first, the main priority. Always complaining when things don't go OUR way. And yet I wondered if people in the Transito building started to demand a more efficient service, hey maybe even more chairs in the place, would it result in a better process? Who knows.

There were signs everywhere saying not to dirty the walls. Even so, the whole place was smudged with inked fingerprints; on the walls, the desks, the chairs. The other signs warned people not to participate in corruption and only pay the established amount for the services. After waiting for 8 hours in that sweaty box, even I would be tempted to slip a guy $4 to speed up the process. Sometimes it's no wonder corruption is alive and well.

Well, our friend Rebeca waltzed in with us and went straight upstairs. She chased down an official and shoved our papers into his hands. She went on to explain our situation and then proceeded to follow him as he went down the hallway to another office, with us right behind her, hauling Elena. There were about 5 different stops for signatures, for us to quickly draw a map of where we lived, for us to stamp Elena's footprint on a card and Carl's thumb print (yeah, they didn't ask me for mine), and then do it over again because the official at the desk printed off the wrong card. They asked Carl for the name of one of Elena's siblings and one of her uncles to put into the system in case they lost her file. ??

After about 2 hours of scrambling in the building like mice in a maze, we completed our part of the paperwork and could escape to the fresh moving air. Rebeca said we could wait outside while she finished up the last of the forms. That was 2 hours with a lawyer. Wow.....

Next step is to send away documentation for her citizenship card and then her passport. Here's praying this step of paperwork is easier...