Tuesday September 2
Today we met with Judith and Sofia at the place where I’m to get a new ID (as the old one has to be changed from one that says I’m single to one that says I’m married). When we went to the office we were told that they moved to a new location. Sofia got the address and off we went.
When I got my new “cedular” it had Jayne’s name on the back, but it had her married name. Neither Jayne nor I wanted it to be there but Sofia told us that in order to get one with her married name the passport has to be changed. In England the US and other countries you just show your married certificate, but not Ecuador. Typical!
What I’ll do is type “De Mott” on it and paste over it. When I told the others, they all laughed.
A while back Jayne did ask about getting a new passport and the embassy said that it would cost $170 – about twice what it would cost in England.
Then we went to the immigration office where Jayne was to get her “censos” (she will not be able to get her “cedular” until the other paperwork is finished). When we walked out she saw that it had “Ireland” on it instead of “British”.
Going back we were told that when she first entered the country they put her down as coming from Ireland; that this is in the computers and in order to change it we have to go to the immigration police office building.
Another screw up!!
Sofia couldn’t make it as she had another appointment so Judith went with us.
How they screwed up was, when Jayne first entered the country they looked at her passport that says, “European Union Commonwealth of Britain and Northern Ireland”. So they just looked at the last name and put down Ireland! If the person at passport control did his work he should have looked at the information page (where her picture is and details about her) would say, “Citizen of Britain” then all of this would not have happened.
Jayne was given a form to fill out in additon a copy had to be made of her passport, but did the office have a photocopier? NO! Again, typical of Ecuador! It seems like every government office you have to go to they don’t have a copier – at least not for clients – so we had to go across the street to have this done. It seems like the government does this deliberately so as some small shop can make money. Why the police/immigration offices don’t have it and charge a profit for it, we’ll never know. It would make it easier for the people.
So we went to the store across the street from this very nice office building of the immigration police to have the copy made.
As soon as Jayne left the store she hit her head hard on the metal overhang! (This is something that is pulled down over the front of the store at night.) This made her sit on the step immediately. I cursed at the metal gate and tried to push it up higher. I tried to sooth her. Another man in the store got a bottle of cold water and I put it on her head.
In England a store could get sued for this.
I said, “This place is made for midgets!” Jayne said, “They are shorter than us.” I said, “This is also short for many Ecuadorians, too.”
After Jayne sat down for about 5 minutes we went back to the police office again. We were told that they have to process the form and that we can come back tomorrow afternoon. Then we would have to go back to the other immigration office (a different one; the one we were just at) so they can give her another ID. I’m sure we will be charged $4 again for this.
Jayne commented that on the form it said, give a reason, and she said, “Because immigration didn’t read the passport.” In short, let them know that the government screwed up.
As I said earlier, it seems that every step of the way in getting resident for Jayne (or just about everything else here that needs to be done) there’s a screw up!
When we first walked into the immigration police office building we noticed a couple of people who were at the office where you get your “censos”. One was an elderly woman and another looked like an American family of three. We acknowledge each other. Now, people don’t go to this office unless they couldn’t get their censos. How much is this due to government red tape or screw ups on their part?!
Now we have to meet Judith tomorrow and hopefully we can get this finished.
We still had some free time before went to our luncheon engagement with Mathieu’s family. So Jayne and I went to a restaurant to have some coffee and unwind. Then we went to a small supermarket to get a bottle of something to bring over. I saw a bottle of Russian vodka so I bought that. Mathieu knows that I lived in Russia so this would be appropriate.
At Mathieu’s we had a very nice conversation and meal, which included, cheese and crackers, wine, pea soup and potatoes with cheese and corn.
We told Matt about our experience today along with the trip to Cotopaxi.
I told him that we need someone that can repair our roof. He recommended a man that does very good work and had done the roof on his new home. He called him and the worker agreed to meet me Thursday in my town, but it will be at 7am in front of the church. He said he’s neither cheap nor expensive, but middle of the road, but his work is very good. (He had repair roofs for monasteries in the city.
Then, Jayne and I departed and went home via taxi.
Thursday September 4
Posts
