Redefining Paper Work.
O Donesky
Dear Friends and Family, Dec 12, 2008
Short Version: This update finds Odil, Christina and I in Lima doing paperwork for my residency and the air program.
After 6 hour in the Peruvian Immigrations office on Tuesday and two Bible Studies later I am now an official resident of Peru. We have started working on residency for Odil and the Kids based on my residency.
Airplanes: We had the Annual Inspection on the Lake last week and are still trying to make the DGAC happy with all of the paper work. We spent Wednesday at the DGAC office trying to get all of the needed signatures. Finally Thursday they told us we could fly the airplane and promised us the certificate with all of the signatures on Friday morning. The bad news is the Cessna is due for its Annual Inspection next week, so we get to start this full process all over again on the other airplane. It will probably take till mid January to complete the process on the Cessna.
My Peruvian Pilots License: On Wednesday it looked nearly impossible for me to get my license without a basic ability to communicate in Spanish. Thursday, God went to work and I am scheduled to pick up my license on Friday morning. What a blessing.
Long Version: Last week we went through the Annual Inspection process on the Lake Renegade. This process requires doing a physical inspection of the airplane from end to end as well as preparing paperwork for the Peruvian GDAC (Local equivalent of the US Federal Aviation Administration). All totaled the paperwork adds up to a book ¾ of an inch thick covering the airplane, its maintenance and operations.
When you are ready for the inspection, an inspector comes out from Lima to review your paper work and inspects the airplane. He then takes all of that information back to the DGAC office for processing at which time it all disappears into a big black hole. Last week we found ourselves at this stage of the process.
Also last week we were told that my residency paper work was complete and that I needed to come to Lima to get my picture taken and sign to pick it up. Once that process was done, then I could start working on my Peruvian pilot's license. And so the stage was set for a trip to Lima with Beto, the current pilot, deciding we should go by bus to save money and me deciding to take Odil (who had done most of the paperwork for the inspection) to help me understand more what was going on, and Odil deciding that Andrew could stay, but Christina should come with us.
What a bus trip. 800 Kilometers and 20 hours through the jungle, over the Andes and down the other side to Lima. The family in front of us on the bus was a mother, father and 4 kids all riding in three seats. The one daughter was sick almost before we left the bus station in Pucallpa and remained that way for the full trip. Poor kid. The road was paved for the first ways, then good gravel, then poor gravel as we started up into the mountains. Somewhere in the middle of the night it went back to reasonable pavement for the rest of the way across the Andes. As we started up into the foot hills (on the worst of the road) we were stopped by a local "security officer" who boarded the bus, weapon and all and offered us protection. He passed the hat for an offering for his services and rode with us for some time. It seemed to me he was probably the front man for the rest of the group who would stop you if the "offering" was not acceptable, but we had been assured that there had not been security problems on that section of road for some time.
Next we were stopped by an officer who I was told was inspecting the bus for drugs. It was about this time that I noticed a lizard type creature about 18" long behind my seat. Not wanting to excite Christina, and not sure I might be seeing things, I kind of ignored it and went back to sleep. Latter we found out that one of the passengers was transporting a "lagarto"(relative of alligator) which is illegal, and probably turned him loose when the drug officer boarded the bus. Then the door opened for the officer to leave so did the lagarto to the surprise of the "bus attendant".
When the sun came up we were still climbing the pass at a fairly high elevation. I was told the pass over the Andes was somewhere between 14 to 15,000 feet above sea level. Both Pucallpa and Lima are basically at sea level. The remainder of the trip was beautiful and uneventful. I am here to testify that them are big mountains, and it's a major engineering feat to run a road from Lima to Pucallpa. If you get a chance you need to ride the bus across at least once. It will take a day but is much cheaper then flying and the scenery is awsome, you would get to see a major cross section of Peru.
For my residency, we went to the Immigrations office first thing in the morning only to be told we needed an appointment. Everything else we needed to do required me to have this residency card so we were stuck. The guy that was helping us with the paper work tried everything he could to get an appointment only to be told no. The only option he found was that if we had a bus ticket, showing a departure time when we were leaving, they would try to accommodate us. So off we went to buy a bus ticket.
Our friend and Odil talked the bus company into selling me a ticket for that afternoon, then letting us change the ticket for two days later so we could finish all of the paper work that we needed to do (in Peru changing a ticket is not a standard practice so it was a minor miracle to have them agree to changing my ticket). Back to the immigration office with ticket in hand and the officer begrudgingly started the process to process my card. It still took a couple of hours to process my paper work. As we sat waiting, I was thinking about how I would have really still miss "my bus" if I had really had to go. Odil got talking to a gentleman sitting behind us. He was an attorney from Colombia who had left with his family after his brother had been killed and his life had been threatened. He was in the process of making a new life for himself in Peru. He was very interested in what had brought us to Peru so Odil shared with him why we had come and what we were doing. This ended in an hour plus long Bible Study. What a blessing. He was starving for an understanding about what the Bible really says. He peppered Odil with questions about the Virgin Mary, the Pope's authority, images, why so many denominations, and the Sabbath. He asked about what happens at death, about the validity of the Bible, the second coming, and how old testament people were saved. All of the information from a ShareHim campaign was summarized in that one hour long Bible Study. Looking back we have no doubt why we were delayed in that office that morning. God had arranged a Bible Study and we were early for the appointment. Please keep Gonzalo in your prayers as he studies the Bible Lessons we are sending him.
Then on to the GDAC for the remainder of Tuesday. We had at least two problems we needed solved, the inspection on the Lake and my pilot's license. We were told what information we needed to supply to get my pilots license in Peru. It did not look good at all. They wanted me to be able to converse in simple Spanish and wanted me to take training and a check ride in Peru. It looked long, drawn out and somewhat hopeless. We went back to where we were staying and started collecting the paperwork that we thought necessary. Wednesday morning found us back at the GDAC paperwork in hand, but they didn't like the papers we brought and after much discussion decided that we were using the wrong form, so here we go again. By Wednesday evening we had turned in all of the right paper thought necessary but still needed to write two tests (no test times available) and lacked the requirement of having the ability to converse in simple Spanish. Thursday morning Odil was rereading the requirements for my license and studying the requirements for Spanish and discovered that it was an option to get a restricted license with proper permissions. So with new letter in hand asking for a restricted license (requiring me to have a translator with me when I fly which will happen anyway for some time to come) we find ourselves back at the GDAC office. We were able to meet with the licensing lady and she had no problem with our request. Next the test lady told us that she had had a cancellation and could give me the other two tests that morning if I was ready. Sure I am ready, I think. But I haven't reviewed at all for one of the tests and I didn't even print the questions because I didn't know I needed to take the test. Next miracle was that another pilot in the office at this time had a printed copy of the test and allowed us to make a quick copy. When I looked at the new test I thought "I'll never be able to pass this test". It was a phraseology test. They gave you an aviation phrase in Spanish and you had to pick the right phrase in English and my Spanish is still not good. So I sat down to review with Odil' help. At first I panicked. But Odil assured me I could do it. The more I looked the more I realized that most of the correct answers could be selected by just knowing English aviation jargon. And the rest could be worked through with some good test taking skills. An hour later I was ready, maybe, I thought. To my delight the test lady informed me that they were waving the phraseology test because I knew English. What a blessing. One regulations test later and I was done. But sorry, you cannot pick up your license until tomorrow morning. But my bus leaves in a couple of hours. Sorry can't do it. And so this morning I sit here with another changed bus ticket (and remember they don't change bus tickets in Peru) preparing to go hopefully for my final visit to the GCAD, for at least this week, go get my Peruvian Pilot's license.
God is Good,
Orville
PS Plans are begin a full flying schedule next Wednesday in the Lake, stay tuned……