scared spitless

our little Versa car... the source of our problem

I guess if Matt and I hadn’t been playing a silly game of who can sing the lowest I would have seen them! Those of you who know me well I take games like that pretty seriously so while we were driving to West End for supper I didn’t see the police waving me over. ( Matt told me later. ) I had just parked along the narrow road in West End to go to Eagle Ray’s for dinner when I saw a policeman standing beside me with a very large gun and then 4 more surrounding me.

Oh dear I thought.. this is not good!!!!!!! Before I go any further with the story I need to explain some things about life down here regarding the police. They can stop you and fine you for anything. They often make gringos pay fines and most do. It is like a supplementary income for them. So seeing 5 of them surrounding our car was why I called this blog 'scared spitless'. The guy was jabbering in Spanish so I said "English"??? He pointed to the guy in the truck so I got out and he clearly said, “ I need to see your papers! Your license and registration. I need to see your papers.”

Okay here is where it gets tricky because we had been in a rush to go for dinner and to be honest the main thing on my mind was to get a picture of a rock in the setting sun. I had tried a week earlier and it didn’t turn out so I wanted to come again and get the shot I wanted. So because I was focused on photography I forgot my purse at home which meant no license. Having no license on Roatan is a pretty big NO NO!!!

this is the bad picture that didn't turn out.. I haven't gotten back there to get the rock in focus

I tried to explain this to the police. Here is a tip for you: don’t try to explain that kind of stuff to the police in foreign countries. They don’t care about photos or excuses. He kept saying “Paper, Paper!!!” I said I have my license at home and I need to call my husband who is in San Pedro Sula, to find out where the registration papers are. He said," Okay you call now!" I gave him a feeble look and sheepishly said, “Um I left my phone at home too!” By now the guy is getting rather exasperated and I am seeing my fine go higher and higher and higher. As I read this now there is an element of humour in it called "life according to Debi" but at the time .. my word.. I was really scared.. spitless!!!

I came up with the plan for them to follow me to the house and I would get him what he wanted. Okay. He told me and added that if I couldn’t produce the papers they would take the car and it was be a big fine. Oh dear.

Okay I need to paint a picture for you. The police aren’t like our police in nice blue uniforms and small little guns in holsters that they never use. These guys are dressed in black with high boots, and they carry huge semi automatic guns (yes machine guns!!!) They are sooo intimidating. So I was quite freaked out when one of these scary guys got into the back seat of the car...him and his GUN!! I guess so I wouldn’t try to slip away from them. As if I would. I kept thinking... do they ever use those guns??!

this is an old picture that i took at the peace march. i decided not to take any pics of them that day .. who am I kidding I was too freaked out to think about taking a picture. but this gives you a visual (these are actually cobra from the Mainland.. our cops dress in black only)

Another thing: our registration had expired. We got one extension, then our lawyer went to Tegucigalpa and spent two extra days getting our second extension. After that you can’t get anymore. BUT since we are now residents we are now allowed to bring one car in duty free (which saves us about 9000 dollars) BUT it involves alot of paperwork, and we were in process with that.

So I called Bob, explained the dire situation and he said well just show them the registration and see what they say. When the police saw that our registration had expired he laughed out loud. I could see the dollar signs in his eyes. I kept thinking this is not good. But I am happy to say that Bob called Liliana, our Spanish neighbour who came and saved the day and basically said she knew the Chief of Police and not to harass us, we were good people, missionaries, and we were in process with our lawyer. I showed him our residency card which is impressive because not many people go to the trouble of getting that so it showed to him that we were responsible and abiding by the Law. But hey who am I kidding??? It was Liliana threatening to call the Chief of Police that made him hand me back my papers and say "Okay."

I said, "Okay what?"

“Okay, when you get your car registered you come to French Harbour and see me.”

That’s it? No fine! No taking my car away? (I said that to myself) The relief I felt was phenomenal.

An after note: regarding our car’s registration. We went to our lawyer and began again to gather up all the documents, notarized papers, getting the value of the car etc. etc. etc. If you can believe it we need 9 copies, yes you read right of our ownership paper.. why 9 copies??! I think the Hondurans have a crazy love affair with paper!

But the problem still remained that we were now a ‘sitting duck’ since the cops knew that our car isn't registered and we needed to get some temporary paper saying we were in process. So again Liliana to the rescue took us to a lady who ‘looks after gringos on the island’ who happens to be the Chief of Police’s wife. Oh to know people in high places! (Of course, it helped to pray!!)

This is the funny part: she looked at our registration paper and declared that we were registered til the 20^th of November. Bob tried to explain that that is the date our car is registered in Canada and that isn’t our extension date but she insisted. The chief of police agreed. They all declared that to be the date, and told Bob that if any police bother us to tell them to call her anytime and she will let them know.

Then she called the captain in French Harbour and explained about the Nov. 20^th date and said, “Leave them alone, don’t bother them anymore, they are good people”

Again I say, can you imagine this happening in Canada?? No. That’s because this is Honduras and it works this way. Such is life here and I must say..., I am really thankful it turned out the way it did...Thank you God!!