A trip to the VIO office

If you're from California, it's "the DMV" (Department of Motor Vehicles). In Illinois, it's the "Secretary of State." I have no clue what it's called anywhere else, but here, it's the VIO (Vehicle Inspection Officer) office. And yes, it's called "the VIO office" even though "office" is part of the O. Go figure.

I'd only been once, and that was many years ago, to get a learner's permit when Dad had the notion of teaching me to drive. Unfortunately, his attempts proved unfruitful in that he decided it was just too dangerous to teach me to drive a stick here, of all places. Too many chickens and goats, etc.

Well, David's learner's permit expires this week, so we went in to see if we could get him a license. The problem was that he'd "misplaced" his permit. (We know exactly where it is, but for the moment, it's irretrievable.)

There were three men in the small, high-ceilinged office - in addition to an empty desk and several broken chairs. One of the men was sitting at a second desk cluttered with papers. On the edge of the desk was a calendar. Faintly interested, I stepped closer and read "The Beauty of Plateau State 2005" at the top of the calendar. The month was set to September. On the other end of the desk was a radio blaring R&B on Radio Plateau.

David slowly explained to the officer that he had misplaced his permit but would like to get a license. The officer asked David's name and then proceeded to look through a folded stack of permit applications stuffed into his top desk drawer. He thumbed through the stack, glancing at each filmy carbon copy. When he did not find David's application, he looked through two folders on his desk. Finally, he asked David's name again and looked through the first stack, coming to David's application almost on top.

"What do you expect me to do?" he asked. "You don't have your permit, and I told you that you were to bring it with you in six months to get your license." David was silent. "Have you read the rule book?" the officer asked. David shook his head. "Well, you've only done half the preparation then," replied the officer. "You've done the practical driving but not the theory." So we bought the rule book, and David promised to look it over. The man asked us to return in a week, having read the book and preferrably with the found permit.

"What about my license?" I asked. David reminded the officer that six months earlier, he'd said I could drive on a foreign license for a few months after arriving. Now, the officer told us, I would need a Nigerian license. He asked me to bring in three "passports" (photos) and copies of my American license to start the paperwork.

So today I have to go out and get some more passport photos (which are a different size here than in the U.S.). And next week we get to return to complete our business at the VIO office... I hope.