Paperwork Slow Down

Julissa sporting her new glasses

We had only 3 things on our to-do-list for today: get Julissa's transcript, grocery shop, Spanish lessons. Thought there was no need to leave before 10 (the school principal is often not in before that when school is not in session) and surely we would be finished and back home in time for our 12:30 Spanish class. I had talked to the principal yesterday and she assured me that the transcript  would be ready for me. I really should have known better.

Our first stop was the school. The principal was there, the transcript was "ready" and just needed to be copied, but the power was out. Did we want to wait? We decided to run do the grocery shopping. It turned out to be "missionary day" as so many of our missionary friends were also grocery shopping. We enjoyed visiting with them until Don heard the air-conditioner kick back on. We knew the power had been restored.

Back to the school where we waited 30-40 minutes for the copies to be made and signed. We drove to the Department of Education; it was just a few minutes past noon, we can probably still make it! Nope.  The doors were locked. Lunch break until 1 p.m.  Nothing to do but go on home with the groceries. Don said we'll never make the Spanish class in time. I said we would if we skipped lunch. We stopped by church and I ran in to tell Esmerelda that we would be a bit late, don't wait for us. We live just about a mile from the church. We quickly put the groceries away, got a cold drink and our Spanish notebooks and returned to church in time for most of the class.

Time to return to the Department of Education. No waiting! Wow, this is great, I thought. Until the two women checking the multi-page transcript began scrutinizing every page, back and forth, back and forth. Finally they told us (in Spanish) that her first name was misspelled on one of the pages. I asked (in English) can't you just stick an extra "i" in there? One of the women then led us into another office where she found another employee who spoke English and could explain to us what needed to be done. We were to return to the school, have them write a note on that page in the official transcript book, copy it, sign it, and we were to then return with the correction duly noted.

Back to school. The principal was busy, but Julissa's teacher was there and was able to take care of it in short order. Back to the Department of Education where the first woman looked it over and then took it in to someone else for the official signature and department seal. We were excited to finally have this task completed.

We have missionary friends going to San Pedro Sula next week. They will take the transcript and mail it from there. Hopefully that will make delivery quicker. The English-speaking woman at the Dept. of Education advised that we make copies of the original and send only a copy to the school. We already know that the school will only accept the original document with the official seal, but keeping copies is a good idea. I sure hope the original doesn't get lost in the mail. Now we just need to get the tuition money to the school. Julissa is getting the bank account information so we can just transfer money into the school's account, then she'll be all set for the year.