12 August 2008

Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy sucks wherever you may find it, but when faced with a sea of bureaucrats in a country and language other than one's own, its that much harder to maintain one's sense of humour. I recently faced that here in Thailand.

I purchased a new motor vehicle in Chiang Mai towards the end of April. Part of the deal was that the dealership would, at no extra cost, register the vehicle in my name- i.e. no red tape to deal with. I provided the dealership with all the documents they needed and they told me it would take a week or two to have the vehicle registered in my name. In the meantime, I was given a temporary red number plate (paay deang) to use. One week after purchasing the vehicle I moved to Lampang, a town 100km south of Chiang Mai. Biiiig mistake!

After I had moved to Lampang, I was told, via the car dealership that the authorities in Chiang Mai wanted proof of residence and that I should go to the Immigration Office in Chiang Mai to apply for the necessary document providing proof of residence. So I made the journey, only to find out that the Immigration Office had stopped issuing these documents months ago. I was told to contact my embassy in Bangkok. Fortunately, I had business to attend to in Bangkok, so I picked up the necessary document (which was full of typo's!). Another trip to Chiang Mai, to the vehicle dealer to provide proof of residence. When the vehicle registration authorities in Chiang Mai saw that I was resident in Lampang, they informed me that I had to register the vehicle in Lampang. So I had to make another trip to Chiang Mai to collect all the registration documents from the dealer. It was now up to me to register the vehicle myself in Lampang. It took me 3 days to find the relevant authorities in Lampang, and when I submitted the documents to them, they informed me that one of the pages (in a bundle about 10 pages thick!) needed to be stamped by the Chiang Mai office. So back to Chiang Mai to have a jolly rubber stamp put on a page.

Finally! All the documents stamped and signed and ready to go, I went to the Lampang vehicle registration authorities. After standing in 3 queues I was rudely told that my vehicle needed to be inspected first and that I was to join the queue of vehicles. This queue went halfway around the building, so I gave it a miss and went home. This happened twice more and finally, the 4th time I go, I decide to brave the queue, which is about 10 cars long (at 8am!). 2 hours later my brand new vehicle is "inspected". I am given an extra wad of papers and told to report to counter 4. Counter 4 signs and stamps some of my papers and sends me to counter 11. Counter 11 peruses my documents for 10 minutes and sends me back to counter 4. Counter 4 doesn't know why I'm back, but I refuse to leave until they clarify with counter 11 what the problem us. Counter 4 phones counter 11 and tells them off. Back to counter 11 I go. They take half an hour to process my forms. They take my money and I start to see a light at the end of the tunnel - or maybe its just the train! Counter 11 sends me to counter 15. After an hour-long wait at counter 15, I finally get my new registration plates. Yippee ! I'm outa there, but no! wait! Gotta go back to counter 11 to get the blue registration book. After another 1 hour wait I finally get my blue registration book and this time I really am outa there before they find some other problem.

Mission accomplished. Final score = Total distance traveled in getting all the necessary documents to register my new car that I paid cash for - 1900km. Total time taken from date of purchase to date of registration -3 months. Total mileage on new vehicle before its finally registered - 8000km. Now you can't beat that for an exercise in bureaucratic inefficiency and patience stretching!











Before and After

Rice Planting

July is the beginning of the rainy season in Thailand. That also means that its time to plant rice. Everybody clubs together to help with the planting and its an interesting time in rural Thailand as all available hands head out to the rice paddies. Suddenly finding a builder or a handyman, or even a mechanic, becomes impossible and little odd-jobs are put on the back burner for a while.

The whole process starts with seed beds that have been prepared in advance. These are harvested and the rice seedlings are bundled.

(The ladies in this picture are harvesting and bundling rice seedlings to be replanted in prepared paddies).



At the same time, paddies that have been lying fallow are prepared by pumping water into them. Thailand literally has thousands of water canals (called khlongs) which are used for this purpose.

(Water being pumped out of a khlong into a paddy - note in the background the 2 dry paddies)


After the water in the paddies has made the soil soft and mushy, its time to dig it up, or plow it. For this they have a fancy contraption that looks like a generator on 2 big wheels.

This is what they used in the good old days and will probably revert to if fuel prices keep going up!











Once the paddies have been plowed, they are ready to be planted. Now the back breaking task begins as rows of people stand shin-deep in water, bent double, as they plant the rice seedlings. (Aaagh! It hurts my back just looking at them!)
In a few months time the rice crop will be ready for the harvest.

Our July Newsletter

KHAO PANSAA (BUDDHIST LENT)

We went to Trish’s favourite noodle shop for lunch – where they
throw in boiled pig intestines for no extra charge! There was a
festive atmosphere, and a friendly guy offered Nick a whiskey.
Nick declined, but his new friend was insistent, explaining that
“Khao Pansaa” is about to start, and during the 3 months of
Buddhist lent, drinking is forbidden, so drink as much as you can
today. In fact, he told us, he was drinking enough today for the
next three months. Later he admitted that he probably wouldn’t
last 3 months without a drink!

The rains have started in earnest and we are in the time of the
Buddhist Lent ("rain retreat"). Its an auspicious time for
Buddhists: it marks a period of spiritual renewal for them. It is a
time devoted to study and meditation. The monks usually stay in
the temple grounds, a tradition which dates back to years gone
by when it was necessary to prevent them from trampling on
newly planted rice paddies when they ventured out to receive
offerings from the villagers.

Thai people are usually actively engaged in merit-making during
this period. They bring offerings of food to the monks, but it’s
the offerings that provide light, like candles, which are
considered to be particularly important. It is believed that these
offerings provide monks with illumination physically and
spiritually.

Not insignificantly, within the next couple of weeks we will be
opening our outreach centre, The Lighthouse, right in the centre
of Lampang.

ARM AND OTHER FRIENDS

His name is “Arm”, he hardly has any teeth – those that he does
have are black stumps. He is five years old, but looks as if he’s
only two. His mother is very poor and the gardener in our
housing development. Arm has adopted us. For the first few
weeks that we lived here, he’d stare at us and follow us around
on his bicycle… and race away the minute we’d try to initiate any
contact with him. Now, he comes into our home, eats our food,
drinks our cooldrinks, plays with our toys, watches our TV, and …
listens to Bible stories, learns to sing “Jesus loves me” and hears
Trish read stories about how good God is. Naturally we have to
translate for him, and even so he probably only understands a
tiny bit of what we’re sharing, but, seeds are being planted in his
life.

On Saturdays, we have Kids’ Club in our home – Carrot, Champ, Satang (Thai word for a 1 c coin), Stamp (see photo), Rainbow and others are coming faithfully despite the focus on Jesus. While its fun and games, again, seeds are being planted each week. Its rainy season and we have a powerful God, so we’re optimistic!!!