Freedom!!

Well, today I received my ticket to freedom! This morning Hugo, Brynne and I went to Jayapura with one of the MAF guys from the office. We parked in the parking lot of the tallest building in Jayapura, surprise surprise, the parking lot of Bank Papua. Then we walked to the police station. There we went to the drivers license section and made our presence known. Yesterday the MAF guy had gone and done some of the prep work for us to get our SIM’s (licenses). So we really didn’t have to wait long and then we were asked to sign a million different documents and then make two thumb prints. Then we were sent to the room next door, which had a sort of functioning airconditioner. There we had our photo taken, by computer no less, and our thumb prints also rescanned into the computer using our actual thumb and not the prints we had already made. The equipment in the office was quite hilarious. They had an old computer with no cover on the box, all circuit boards etc. were exposed, and their state of the art 15 inch monitor was propped up on an old dot matrix printer. Way funny… But the process went very smoothly and we were in and out quite quickly. So, we didn’t have to do a written test or a road test and we both have our car and motorbike licenses for five years! Another funny thing is that normally everyone living here has to go to the police station and immigration once a year for finger printing. Yes, every year even though your finger prints won’t change. However, even though it has been 3.5 years since we left Papua, we were given special permission not to have to go through this ordeal. The MAF guy, who obviously has more than a few friends there, got us this special permission! Gotta love him! What a relief that was, not to have to go to Jayapura, a one hour drive down a very windy, hilly road, with five kids, two of whom regularly get car sick and actually throw up… I wanted to kiss him, I really did… So after that was all done, we went to Gramedia. This is a new store to Papua, but there are lots in Bandung. You can buy books, school supplies, sports equipment, musical instruments and some toys there. We were quite excited that they have one here as usually they have good quality stuff. I bought a snorkel set with flippers. After using the one we bought at Superstore for 12.99 when we went to the beach, I was looking for something that would actually keep the salt water away from my eyes… Success!! Can’t wait to use it now…. Then we went to a store that has a fair bit of imported food. I actually found cherry tomatoes and mozzarella there! Very exciting! Then we went back to Abepura and I found strawberries, and boneless, skinless chicken breast and broccoli and seedless grapes and kiwis!!! I am telling you, the kids were so excited when they saw all that stuff… It was a good day of shopping that’s for sure! (I’m told a boat had recently come into the harbour there with lots of imported stuff so we hit it right.) I didn’t take any photos of our day, sorry… But I will post a photo of the newest member of our family. Which I can now legally drive, look out everyone! I practiced around the compound today and will do a little more of that before heading onto a real road with other traffic… Before I can drive any MAF vehicle I have to do a check-out drive with the base manager. Aparently we will go for quite a drive. It’s been well over a year since I last drove a car and now I have to drive on the “wrong” side of the road with the steering wheel on the “wrong” side of the car… should be fun…
P.S. Check out the wicked brake pedal... a young guy owned this bike before us...