Pain in the Neck Day...

Twice in one week is way too much for me.  Friday will go down as another of my not so favorite days here.  I’ve been working hard trying to replace all of the documents and things that were stolen when my bag was stolen.  The driver’s license was about two days of work.  The passport was about a half a day.  The visa has been a bear.  I spent all of last Wednesday working on it and at the end of the day I had made no progress.  

Thursday was a holiday, so I returned Friday to finish the job.  It again took all day.  I went to one police department who had to write me a letter requesting that they right a letter to another police department.  Strange I know.  I drove across town to the second just in time for them to close for lunch.  

After lunch I went back and we fought about the letter for a bit.  I told them I needed one for immigration they told me I needed one for foreign affairs.  They wrote one for the foreign affairs office.  I had to pay for them to write the letter.  Just finding the place to pay was an adventure.  The man I had been working with told me to go pay.  “Where do I pay?” I asked him.  He gave a strange pointing sign and said up.  Now this isn’t a multistory building.  It is a large compound with several one and two story buildings on it.  Up meant to head up a slight grade to another building.  After searching for some time I ended up finding it.  I had to weave through a couple buildings and then go behind one to find the door.  Inside the building was dark with a few signs in their language and all the doors closed.  It was strange indeed.  

From here I went to foreign affairs where they wrote a letter to the embassy for a new passport.  I told the girl I already had a passport and now needed a new visa.  “Then why are you here?” she asked.  “Because they sent me here.”  “We have nothing to do with that, go back and tell them to write a letter to immigration.”  

This time I bossed the police around a bit more and finally got the right letter.  I went to immigration to jump through their hoops again.  All was going well until I had to pay.  They wanted 20 US dollars.  I don’t carry dollars; I live here.  Why don’t they take their own money?  So I left quickly to go cash some birr for dollars.  I pulled out onto the road and then something happened.  I couldn’t figure out what it was.  

I had pulled from a drive on the left to the far right side of traffic and stopped for a second or two at a stoplight.  Now all of the sudden my car was rolling and I couldn’t get it to stop.  After a second or two I realized I had been hit.  I realized my foot slipped of the brake and I wasn’t stopping because I was on the gas pedal now.  I had been rear ended by a taxi that is a small truck with a topper on the back.  

Police came sort of.  Actually once my friend came to help me we had to drive to the opposite side of town to pick up a police officer and bring him back.  Somehow through 6 or 7 hours with police, clear lies by the taxi driver (He claimed I hit him because there were scratches down the side of my vehicle.), discussions with several officers, among other things, they decided it was my fault.  I didn’t hit him they decided, didn’t matter that he lied about that.  Instead I didn’t have enough time to pull out and should have left priority for the taxi.  

It was a rough day.  Looks like I’ll have to go to court soon as I am still unwilling to take blame for the accident.  If I don’t take the blame we’ll be stuck in this for perhaps six months.  If I do it’s over.  Higher ups are deciding what we want to do in light of the big picture.

On the bright side, I got my visa finished.  Went to pick it up yesterday but forgot my receipt.  Will return today and can now legally be here for 30 days.