Learning Patience

David and I often marvel at the patience we are learning day by day. One either learns patience here or lives in constant frustration. We’ve opted for learning.

Our latest tutorial on patience involves paying the road tax for our vehicle. The tax payment provided by the Toyota dealership expired May 1. Proof of tax payment is a sticker on the windshield. David was told that he could pay the tax and get the renewal sticker at any local post office. So on the afternoon of Thursday, April 27, we made a trip into Kalomo to take care of the payment. The Kalomo postal worker politely informed David that the post office was short-staffed and no longer accepted road tax payments. The nearest post office that would accept payments is in Choma, he said. Now David had just returned from Choma that morning, so this news was not welcome. Choma is 30 miles away, and since we pay $5.65 per gallon for diesel, we try not to go too often.

But what choice did we have? The tax had to be paid. On Friday, April 28, David made another trip to Choma. There the weary postal worker informed him that his office had been out of stickers for two weeks. Go to Livingstone, he said, to the Road Traffic Department. David explained that there was no way he could make the 120-mile trip to Livingstone before May 1. The clerk advised him to prepare a letter deatailing the efforts that had already been made to pay the tax and take the letter to the police for an official stamp.

Monday morning, May 1, we headed out for a two-day trip to celebrate our anniversary.
We stopped by the Kalomo Police Station and got our prepared letter stamped, promising that we would go to the Livingstone office the next day. We actually drove through Livingstone that morning, but May 1 is Labor Day here and an official holiday, so the Road Traffic Department wasn’t open. We headed on toward our destination of Sesheke on the Namibian border.

Tuesday, May 2, we finished our shopping on the Namibian side and headed back early so we would have time to visit the Road Traffic Department and get the tax sticker. We pulled into the parking lot right at 4:00, congratulating ourselves on making such good time. David went in to make the payment. At 4:04 he was back at the vehicle. It seems that the Road Traffic Department computers shut down at 4:00 each day. We were two minutes too late to get our sticker.

I guess the road tax will get paid eventually. Until then we’ll carry our police-stamped letter, hope for the best, and be thankful for all the patience we’re learning.