Well the days get crazier and more bizarre. First when we got in the car (renting a car due to running all over Teguz and don’t want to die on public bus), it was infested with ants. I accidentally left a banana peel in there…opps. Then I got stopped at the police checkpoint and legally not supposed to be driving with my AZ license because its only valid for 3 months since the last point of entry, but I cannot bear to get a Honduran license which would entail waiting in 5 different lines at the transit office. The police officer informs me that I look like a Leti, not a Monica. I smile and bat my eyelashes so he doesn’t ask to see my passport. It worked.
Poor Margarita, I drag her into the laboratory at the clinic in Teguz, without any breakfast because she supposedly had to have lab tests for the visa medical examination – but once we got there they said “No, only for children under 12,” but of course they didn’t tell me that when I called.
So then we go upstairs to the physician’s office in anticipation of getting the medical exam over with. Her office hours are listed as 8-12am. Here in
We then walk 5 block to get the ID photos, then wait 20 minutes outside my bank to open to find out that the ATM machines doesn’t work. We go to another bank. I withdrawal the money to pay the medical exam. Next we go wait in a 30 min line to deposit the money in the doctor’s account.
Our next stop is the US Embassy where I am told that my Orphan Application has been approved and that it was been forwarded to the Visa Immigrant Unit. Great news!
We then wait in line for the Visa Immigrant Unit window to speak to the officer to confirm the documentation that we must bring to the interview. The officer tells me that I need a “long” version of one of my Honduran papers. I only have the “short” version.
We then go to the Honduran Person Registry. Here we try and enter 3 doors and the guard tells me each time it is another door around the corner. Finally we find the right door but the person who needs to attend to us is of course at lunch.
We wait ½ hour outside. I confirm with my lawyer that the long version of this paper is going to take some time for the Registry to produce and that I need to speak with the civil register of
Next we wait in line for window #3, then window #2, then window #1. Margarita looks at me with a look like “Why didn’t we just wait in window #1?”
I then find out that to get my “long” form of the paper will take till August 24th. I plead to get it sooner. They tell me only with the Civil Registry approval. We then wait for him to show up. I start flagging everyone that passes me down to ask where Marco Tulio is, the man I need to speak with. Out of the corner of my eye I see a man with a mustache and think that must be him. I wave at him and ask an employee near me if that is him and she confirms that it is. I then ask her to go tell him I need to speak to him.
Finally 10 min later he comes over to me and I tell him that we are leaving the country and I need this paper. He then signs and stamps (stamps are every big here) the document that I need and it will be ready on the 7th instead of the 24th.
By this time we have an hour before the doctor’s appointment so we stop by Chris’s house because the 2 hours in the hot registry waiting in 4 different window lines has left me with a huge headache. Margarita is happy to play with Gregory for a short time.
We then dive the 30 min downtown to the Dr's office. The physician turns out to be very nice and she very quickly examines Margarita and gives her 2 vaccinations, chicken pox and Hep B. I then ask her why the cost of the appointment was over $100 when the US Embassy handout states that it is $25. She explains that the vaccinations were over $75, but of course the nurse did not explain that to me in the morning and just gave me the total cost.
I then think to myself that she already had a chicken pox vaccine when she lived at Chris’s project, and I could have saved the $50. Later Chris confirmed that yes, she had it and it was listed in her vaccination card.
When we return to the Ranch after this long, hot day I was ready to pass out. Seriously if anyone asks for another document I am going to loose it. I have filled out and produced so many documents during this process its ridiculous.
But here is the GREAT NEWS…this Monday, August 6th at 7:30 am, Margarita has her Immigrant Visa Interview. Supposedly they will issue it the same day, meaning that we will be able to leave the country after Monday.
Oh geez, I don’t even want to explain what it took to get her Honduran passport. Much like the above.
More after Monday.
Love Monica
