Betty Is Finally All Mine

Last week I finally completed the transfer of ownership of my car, Betty. After a couple weeks if running around town and standing in queue after queue she is officially mine and fully insured. It took us four trips to the RTSA (Road transportation something authority - basically the DMV here) to pick up forms and then return them and pay the fees. Next time you are sitting at the DMV waiting for you number to be called know that it could be worse... you could be at RTSA. 

There are about 30 counters... you get your forms from one, find out you need to pay with another, submit your forms with someone else, and that is all if you get in the right line in the first place. There is basically no seating and no air conditioning, the fans they have don't do much except push around the hot sweaty air. Everything takes so long and people move so slow, but when you are sitting in that heat you know why, your body just partially shuts down and can't possibly process that much at once. If you moved at normal speed you could go for about 20 minutes and then me done for the day, in order to last all day everyone moves at tortoise speed. At least that is my theory as to why Zambians and people who live in warmer climates live life at an easier pace where as back home in the northeast you have to keep moving to stay warm.

In addition to RTSA we had to visit the police station (twice), the seller of the car (twice), ZRA - Zambia Revenue Authority (three times), car insurance agency (twice), and a separate RTSA office to get the car inspected. Most of these trips involved going once to get the proper forms, then returning to wait in a queue to pay the fees and another queue to submit the forms. I had to take four days off from work just to complete everything. We could have paid someone to take care of everything for us but it would have cost us 3 times as much. Although standing in all those lines made me kinda wish we had paid them to do it. Thankfully Katongo had gone with me and helped me through everything because I would have given up by myself. 

I still have to go back to RTSA to update my drivers license so I have a proper Zambian one but we decided I deserved a week off from them and will maybe head back next week. This process seems a bit more simple, but we shall see. They say all I need to do is get the medical clearance form filled out by a doctor (already picked up the form) and bring it with a copy of my American drivers license and then take the road test and pay the fee and an official Zambian drivers license will be mine.