Thursday, May 29, 2014

Bringing sanity to the roads of Peru? Probably not...

Every small effort helps, right?  Every additional driver who will obey the laws and drive as if part of their brain had not been destroyed by tocosh should help the overall situation on the roads here in Peru, right?
Doing her small part to shove the stupid needle on the Peru highways more toward the left,
and in case I'm arrested for driving in my pajamas (see previous entry), Paula also decided to obtain a Peruvian driver's license.  This ranks up there with other easy undertakings, such as:
or that guy that had to roll the rock up the hill,
or maybe erasing the national debt.
However, ever the optimist, she set out to get it done.  Off to License Land!  Those bright signs hiding broken dreams, those smiling faces wanting to rent you a teeny car, those... oh, never mind.
By the end of the next four months, we could drive the road to License Land with our eyes closed, which, by the way, is how everyone else drives in Peru.
Remembering my struggles to pass the driving part of the test, she practiced at the 'driving school.'
We waited in what became known in the family as "The Pit of Despair" to take the test.
She flunked.
She practiced some more.
 She stood around for three or four hours and tried again.
She flunked.
By now, License Land was getting kind of old. 
After much frustration, and with the smiles on the nice 'driving school' instructors getting a little tired, she once more put down some cash and practiced again.
Somehow, and we're not sure how, and we really don't care how and maybe we don't want to know how, 
SHE PASSED!!!
In Paula's defense, on the third try, she didn't touch any lines, she remembered to turn on her flashers when backing up, just like every Peruvian driver never does, and honestly made no mistakes.
So, after four months, passing the written test twice, practicing for hours in back lot 'driving schools,' and after twenty trips of some sort to License Land, she is now a licensed driver in Peru!
She says the whole Middle East peace thing is going to be a cinch.
We hope that you never have to get a driver's license in Huancayo, Peru.  Or drive there, for that matter.
Dave & Paula

2 comments:

Patti said...

Huzzah for Paula! My new standard for doing hard things is that nothing is as difficult as getting a driver's license in Huancayo, so get a grip. Stake RS President? No big deal. Paula's already tackled that one AND has a Peruvian driver's license. Thanks for the perspective!

Julie said...

Where is the "like" button for this post and for Patti's comment!!!!! Way to go Paula!!!