Motorcycle Time!

That Friday was an amazing stress filled day! After customs had the motorcycle in holding for over a month, they finally decided to allow us to have it. They gave us the $ amount that they valued it at and we had to pay. Here in Mendoza, the city has "siesta" -"naptime". Almost all businesses close down at 1pm. Most businesses work from 9am to 1pm, then from 5pm to 9pm. But any kind of govt agency is only open till 1pm. 

Anyways, Steve had been going to customs almost every other day. Finally the day did come. Steve called Derek and I at home at 12:30, told us to grab all the US$ and pesos we had, and to meet him in the central (downtown). We had 30 minutes to get him the money, exchange the US$, and get to the National Government controlled Bank. So, the race began!

Picture in your mind a movie showing New York downtown streets with cars everywhere; ok, that is Mendoza downtown! So, Derek and I are in the car and see Steve half a block down in front of the exchange place. I jump out of the car and start running to him with all the money securely hidden in a cosmetic bag in my purse that is practically glued to my side and arm! (lots of robbery here ya know!) So, then Steve says," no! you were supposed to wait in the car so I could pass you the paperwork and Derek could get you to the bank". At the same time, he had already worked out exchanging the money.

Let me explain one moment what is going  on in this country. This country has "disallowed" the buying of US$. Because the US$ is much more stable than this peso & is the "backup" for this country, and people do not trust the banks after 2001 financial fall and the banks/government stole peoples money right out of their accounts!, Argentines that have money typically trade their pesos into Usdollars$. So, the govt recently put a new law out that noone could trade their money. And if a person wants to travel outside of the country, they now have to report it to the government, yet they cannot find any US$ to travel with, which is an absolute necessity. SO, that has created the black market, which the govt is now referring to it as the blue dollar. Anyway, the current exchange rate is like 4.4 to 1, which is constantly changing daily. But on the black market you can get it 6 to 1.

So, Steve goes to the guy that we always trade money with at the exchange house, and the guy asks how much he is trading, and then tells him…"ok, walk out the door, go 2 doors down, ring the bell, tell them your name, and they will take you upstairs to trade your US$ and they will give you 6.25 on the exchange! So, Steve and I go to that building and Steve is "buzzed in and up". Steve hands me the paper, and says hopefully Derek is still there on the street and get to the bank, which is about 3 blocks away. Unfortunately, the traffic police did not allow Derek to wait there and Derek was gone! So, my fat butt starts running down the streets 3 blocks away to the bank to make it before 1pm. I enter the bank, get in line with the paper from customs, and the bank officer goes and begins "barricading" the doors and is closing the bank at 5 minutes till 1pm! So, there I am, with no phone (we have been with 2 cellphones only between the 4 of us since we got back) to communicate with Steve. So, I go to the bank officer and tell him I have to pay this, show him my paper, and tell him my husband is outside and coming and he has to hand me the $. The banker was rude and told me it is my problem, that my husband should have been here on time and there is nothing he can do. Once the doors are closed, noone can enter, period. And he walks off!

So, there I am looking quite dumbfounded in the middle of the bank, holding a paper with no money, no way to communicate with Steve knowing he is outside wondering where I am because I was supposed to be with Derek, and he cannot even see into the bank, it is so "locked down". I really did not know what to do. Then this police officer in the bank comes up to me and says "I see you have a problem, is your problem urgent?" and I said "yes sir, see this paper, we have to pay this from customs today. My husband was exchanging money, and he is surely outside with it." So, the police guy said, "I tell you what, I am very thirsty and would like to drink a coca-cola, so, I will let you look out this side door to see if your husband is there, and if he is, I will let him come in!" Sure enough, Steve was there, pacing like a caged lion! So, we were able to pay! When we were done, we were looking for the police guy to give him 15 pesos for a coca-cola, but we could not find him. I felt so bad, as we really wanted to buy him lunch! From there, miracles kept happening as when Steve went back to customs for them to release his motorcycle, they told him no, because they don't release after 1pm! So, here we go again, or rather, God goes again, making a way.

God continued His favor.  A custom agent said after receiving a signature from someone in charge, told Steve, "well, this must be your lucky day because we never release after 1pm!" Now, because we were able to get the dollar exchange at 6.25, it saved us a lot of money. As it turns out, because of that dollar exchange, the amount we had to pay was exactly the amount of money we had, not one peso/dollar more or less! If we had done the exchange at 4.4, we would not have had enough money. I love how God works things out, and we knew that day that it was God's hand every step of the way! I am convinced that He is the creator of time! I truly don't see how it all happened within 30 minutes! And that I was able to run down those streets to the bank without falling!  And God's favor blows me away! So, now we will repeat this entire process again with the truck!!!