Hi! I'm writing from an internet cafe in the capital on Ethiopian-time
Friday evening. I had a psychologically/socially rough day yesterday in
the Ministry of Trade, and today I had an economically rough one there.
But by 4:20 pm I had the job done and I have the licenses I need to go
on to the next step for selling the car. It took two days to do what I
hoped wd be a morning's work, but it is a triumph! During the first day
Kaleu was with me to help, and Thank GOD, because I lost it a few
times.

The reason yesterday was hard was problems during the biggest of the 15
steps I performed (yes, fifteen, and each in a different place with one
or more different people in a couple of buildings, though 2-3 times
there was a place/person repeat). A woman kept asking for things that
could not be given. For example, she wanted to see my investment
license as well as my business license, but you're not allowed to have
both -- they end your investment license when they issue you your
business license. But she kept insisting that I had to provide it.
We went up two levels of hierarchy and I was told I had to go to the
Investment Agency and get a letter excusing me from not having an
investment license. Now, I have been though this sort of thing
before where the Ministry of Trade thinks something that is their
responsibility is the investment agency's, and I was not about to
repeat the futile exercise of going to the investment people and be
sent back to Trade and then refused again by Trade. I began to almost
yell in rage and frustration. Luckily Kaleu took over, and we went to
another person and resolved it. That sort of thing happened four times,
though not at such length.

The place is a series of caverns, low lit, and filled with people.
People like me who want something crowd up to long long counters --
say 60' long -- with the other people seated behind them. Ordered
lines do not exist. You are elbow to elbow, arm to arm hip to hip with
your fellow petitioners. Sometimes you sort of clamber up over and
around each other, holding your papers out to get the attention of the
person you need to process your work. Sometimes this is friendly and
sometimes no. Often people push themselves in front of you. I usually
loudly say ThankYou, and usually they back off -- they aren't
expecting to see an old white woman in their midst. 80% of the people
are men. On the other hand, sometimes you end up having pleasant &/or
funny conversations with your fellows. Sometimes people are very
helpful too, even to the point of pushing ME up front. I suppose
there's some sort of crowd psychology going on,

Kaleu wasn't with me today, but I managed the last steps easily
enough. It was an essentially friendly day in the main cavern! I had
to pay a fine of about $300, though. Still, I have to admit that I
deserved it -- I had let my biz license expire, giving it no thought
because I thought I was leaving weeks ago.

So tomorrow I take the corporate-share-transfer minutes to Document
Authorization and Registration and have them reviewed and edited.
Then I have the required changes made in a semi-dungeon area -- I'm
exaggerating: it's just a large, crowded dark place in the basement
where many word-processing women are jammed together. Hot and stuffy.

Then the document will be re-reviewed. Likely as not, the men up in
the reviewing area will then discover other changes they'd missed and
the cycle must repeat. NEVER have they caught all the problems in one
go. One of the times I filed a set of minutes, I went through that bit
with being sent to the Investment Agency, then the Mni of Trade, then
the Inv Agency, and then back to the Doc Auth and Reg office. And when
they were finally done, my old partners refused to sign them. But, ok,
this is getting boring I'm sure. You'd "have to be there."

[Posted in FML 7753]