Well, it was only a matter of time.
The phone rang just as I was about to get started on some computer work. Mr. T, a friend here, called me and said that his battery died and could I bring some jumper cables to start him back up? I called four people before I found jumper cables (my car didn't have them either, and neither did any of the cars around him), and then hopped into the car to drive to the other side of the world to get him.
Two round-a-bouts later, the inevitable happened. The taxi in front of me pulled into the round-a-bout, I looked left and saw that I was clear, so I touched the gas to pull into the round-a-bout myself, and drove straight into the taxi's rear end. That's right, he'd stopped in the round-a-bout.
And I got a ticket for it.
He made me call the police, and when I didn't know the number, he had to get someone else to stop in the round-a-bout to tell us the number to call. At this point, I was already a little perturbed, because he had a small scape on the far right corner of his bumper. My front left corner had much more damage, but seriously? Why block a whole lane of traffic, call the cops, and go through all the hoop la for a small scrape? Grrr.
While we waited for the cops, he proceeded to explain to me in his broken English how round-a-bouts work, and why he it was okay that he stopped in one. I didn't listen. I was hot and grumpy and impatient to go rescue Mr. T on top of it all. The cops came and told us to move our cars out of the round-a-bout, and then proceeded to do paperwork. They never did ask me my version of what happened. I guess round here, if you hit someone--it's your fault.
They asked for my license and registration. Ha. My license has no photo, and states that it is valid without the photo. They were baffled by that. Good thing I had my passport on me. (And good luck to them to try and find the currently valid visa in that thing!) I pulled the registration out of the car, handed it to the policeman and waited while he looked at it. He pointed at it and then said, "Expired."
I looked down and it said, "2004/12/19." Well.
He grinned at me and said it was okay, because the insurance was up to date. (Praise the Lord!) Then he asked me, "Half insurance or full insurance?" I looked at the papers--entirely in Arabic. Ummm...full?
He finished writing up all the paperwork (in Arabic, of course) and hands me the ticket. I asked him what I had to do with it. He said, "In two weeks, you pay. You pay 100ds. No before two weeks, but no more one month. You pay."
I asked him, "Halas?" (My new favorite word. It means 'finished.')
He looked at me blankly, so I repeated, "I pay, then halas?"
He nodded and grinned. "You pay. Halas."
Two hours after he called for help, I found the stranded Mr. T and gave him the jumper cables. Two hours later, I was back at home, wishing never to drive again in this road-insane country.
