How to get a driver's license in Honduras:
1. Go to Direccion Nacional de Transito at 7:30 am with Oswaldo, a representative from the American School (that part was key).
2. Pay 100 lempira ($5) for physical, which includes eye exam, blood pressure, listening to lungs and heart, questions about medical history, and weight.
3. Pay 50 lempira to have a passport-style picture taken.
4. Go to woman, who types up name, date of birth, home "address", names of our parents (why?) and nationality with an old fashioned typewriter. Take this paperwork to policia man at the next desk, where a 5 minute argument starts between Oswaldo and policia over whether or not we all need to get our fingers pricked to determine blood type. Policia man won the argument, so we walk back over to the room where we got our physicals and we each get a prick on the finger. Here, E gets a little woozy, but he pulls through and doesn't faint.
5. Go back to policia man with a little card that states our blood type. Why this is needed for the license, I have yet to find out. Policia man then scribbles and stamps all over the paperwork the woman in #4 just typed up. Policia tells me to go to "ventana cinco, ventana dos, banco, photo".
6. Go to ventanilla #5, give paperwork and California ID to man.
Note: By this time, the Direccion Nacional de Transito is getting crowded and the lines are getting really long. You know the frustration you usually feel going to the DVM? Well, imagine the DMV in Central America... and count your blessings.
7. Go to the bank window and pay 250 lempira (about $12.50), get a receipt for the payment and proceed to ventanilla #2.
8. After ventanilla #2, go to another line for another picture.
9. While waiting in line to take the next picture, watch a little futbol on the flatscreen tv.
10. At last window, give a stack of paperwork that I had collected from #1-9 to woman who takes another picture, this time, a digital photo. I also had to give my finger prints.
11. Wait again, in front of the tv with the futbol game on. Here, I met a very nice woman named Liliana and she's a homeopathic doctor who was trained in Germany. She offers us a ride to the school where Dempsey's futbol team was starting their game in 2 minutes. We take her up on the offer and she and her daughter take us to the school. I also got her card in case we need her services in the future.
12. A woman yells "Jenn-E-fer" and I have, in hand, my Licencia de Conducir. It has only 5 pieces of important information on it: issue date, blood type, gender, license number and my name (in that order). Why is my blood type on my license? I don't think I want to know...
If this sounds confusing and completely ineffecient, it was. Total time? Two hours. I'm sure that if Oswaldo wasn't with us, it would have taken 3 times as long.
We got to D's game just before half time. He was so excited to be there that he ran ahead of us and proceeded to run right onto the field, ready to play. We had to holler at him to get off the field. His team had their first loss of the season to the Tigers. It was a close game, 3-4.
Now after 4 games, their record is 3 wins, 1 loss.
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