Pico Y Placa how long will you torment me?

I don't usually write this often but when life gives you adventure in repetition you have to take advantage of it.

When I first arrived and was issued the "mission" car that I have been driving, I was told that my day for "Pico y Placa" (PYP) was wednesday. Ok Quick review on what Pico Y Placa is...

The last number on a car's license plate determines the day of the week that the rule or system applies to that car. For example, if your plates end in a 1 or a 2 you may not drive your car during rush hour or 7:00am to 9:30am and 4:00pm to 7:30pm on Monday. If your plates en in 3 or 4 the same applies for Tuesday - etc all the way to Friday which limits plates 9 and 0. This is done in an attempt to alleviate some of the congestion on the city streets....back to my story.

So I was told that I was not allowed to drive during rush hour on Wednesdays. I accepted what I was told, didn't pay attention to my license plate and have been driving around under that assumption for the past couple of weeks. I've driven during rush hour on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and I've been a good little boy and had the car parked during rush hour on Wednesday.

So Tuesday of this week I was running a few errands and stopped by the Alliance Academy to help Dave Gardeen get a router working in his office. After working on that for a while I decided to head home and was going to drive another friend to their place on my way. I joyfully pulled out of the Alliance lot and onto one of the main roads heading to my house. The first traffic light I encountered was green so I zipped right through the intersection but noticed an officer standing on the corner who pointed at me and whistled.

Now, whistles in Ecuador can mean many things. Traffic cops use them to direct traffic. People that watch cars on the street use them to help you in and out of parking spots. Other people use the whistles to get your attention in hopes that you will buy their product or enter into their store. At any rate, I tend to notice them with relative disinterest. Tuesday however, for some reason I felt that the whistle was for me.

As I continued down the road I noticed another police officer pull off of the curb on his motorcycle and begin following me. It didn't take long for him to catch up and ask me to pull over. I fought my urge to put the peddle to the metal and become a missionary on the lam and I pulled over. When he pulled up beside me he simply stated that I had PYP and that my car was going to be impounded. Noticing the "security seals" still on the car he quickly pointed out that I had been impounded before and assumed that it was for the same offense. I weakly tried to tell him the Delp story but decided it wasn't as important as dealing with the issue at hand.

I pleaded with the police officer explaining that while I had in fact committed the infraction, it had really not been my fault but the fault of the people who had told me I was fine to drive on a Tuesday. I asked him to help me out and just let me go a few more blocks to my house where I could park the car and not be a burden on society or it's streets ...until at least 7:30 that evening. The officer took my DL and registration, told me he would see what he could do and that I should park at a nearby pharmacy.

After waiting for about 30 minutes at the pharmacy my new found friend showed up and told me that he was going to help me out but that in return I should help him out as well. 35 years of Latin American context means I know what is happening....let the corruption begin. I played dumb and simply asked him what he meant. Looking around to make sure that no one was paying attention to our dealings he explained to me that the law stated that my car needed to be impounded and that I would be fined $80 for my transgression. He asked me if I wanted to deal with said consequence. I naturally said no, I would rather not pay $80 and have to go through the whole process to get my car out of jail. He repeated his desire to "help" me and wanted to know what I was willing to do in return. I again played dumb and simply acted like I didn't know what he was talking about, asking him what he meant. Once more, my buddy explained the consequences to my sin and then sought my own solution to the problem to which my response was again pure and unadulterated gringo ignorance.

We played this little game a few more times until he finally realized that I was too dense to understand the intricacies of subtle communication and he flat out asked me to give him a fraction of the $80 in return for not impounding my car and not being charged the fine. Aha! now I understand...he wants a bribe... I think he was probably shocked when I explained that I couldn't do that. I smiled at him, let him know that I wasn't angry at him and that I fully understood his need to pull me over and the consequence of my vile actions. I even told him that I was ok with my car being impounded and of my need to pay the fine. I was simply hoping that he would show me some mercy and grace as I was new to the system and my grievance was one born of ignorance.

With a somewhat stunned look on his face he handed me my documents and told me to make sure I didn't move the car from the pharmacy parking lot until after 7:30 and he let me go. I shook his hand, told him that I hoped we would have a chance to meet under different circumstances in the future and I walked the rest of the way home.

I think we can all learn a lesson from this story. Don't trust your colleagues to know your license plate number...check for yourself.

More to come in the near future. I travel to Guayaquil (port city) tomorrow. I'll be spending some time seeing the work there as well as meeting with the director of the Youth Workers for the country to iron out some of my roles within the programs.

Please continue to pray for me as I get more and more settled and begin to travel about the country seeing the various works that I will be involved in.

Blessings