Kangaroo Crossing

I have endless stories to post about my visit to site earlier in the week once I recover from my 4:00AM departure to the airport.  In the meantime, I'll leave you with this snippet from the trip:

Manager (M) driving the totally pimped out rental SUV (flashing light, flag, and snorkel) down the absolutely empty, 100% straight road through the outback:  Have you seen any kangaroos yet?

Me:  Only in the zoo; I'm waiting to see one in the wild.  Although C (my colleague who was sleeping sitting in the backseat) told me that he ran over a huge kangaroo last weekend.  Or rather, that he ran over a huge kangaroo that the car in front of him had hit and then run over.

M: Yeah, 'roos are pretty stupid.  They'll hop into your parked car.  There are a ton around here though.  When I was living out here I hit three in one night.

Me:  Three?  I would have abandoned my car and walked after hitting the second one.  Wait a second, why are you the one who is driving with that kind of a track record?

My company is so obsessed with safety that I can't drive a rental car on site visits until I complete a safe driving course and learn to drive a manual, but M is deemed fit to drive with a track record of hitting three kangaroos in a single night.  And did I mention that he didn't realize the car had a sixth gear until he tried to reverse it about three hours after starting our drive?  Good thing I was decked out in head to toe PPE.  And I have to laugh because Western Australia might not have any semblance of style or designer brands but I was given Bollé safety glasses for my trip.  H might have been slightly jealous when he saw them.  I know what someone is getting for his birthday...

And WA Makes Three

Today I went to get my WA driver’s license. Having a U.S. license, I did not need to take a written or road exam, but just needed to provide my U.S. license, passport, and proof of address ( a piece of mail) at the local licensing center. I figured that the process here would be much easier than getting my driver’s license in Doha where I needed:

1. My U.S. license approved by the police chief, aka the man in the most flowing white robes in the police station, who did not speak English or care to look at me.
2. A letter of permission from my husband, translated into Arabic. This was available outside the main licensing area, still within the police compound, in a shed resembling an outhouse for ~$1.50.
3. My Qatar Residency ID, H’s Qatar Residency ID and photocopies of both. This was also available outside in the “outhouse” for ~$1.50 except during tea breaks, bathroom breaks, and calls to prayer.
4. Two passport pictures, on a blue background. One was immediately thrown away and the other was stapled to my application and then thrown away filed. Where did my driver’s license picture come from? A download from the government website (of the same photograph).
5. An eye test which I found my way to past a bathroom, up some stairs, past another counter where you could take a number from (did I need to stop and do that?), and into the first room with a door open and an employee in it. Luckily I had been told that sometimes the examiner showed really small letters for the test but you could ask (joking tone required) for larger letters, telling the examiner that it had “been a long day.” Mission successful! Fortunately it worked, or I may not have passed.

So with all of this documentation and a wait of approximately three hours in a very crowded room with all men, I got my Qatari driver’s license with its beautiful background picture of the Emir on his horse. Very apt!

In Perth, after a very short wait, I was called to a counter and asked to present all of my documentation. The relevant documents where photocopied and examined and then I got a very polite, “pardon me for a moment,” and the woman helping me left the counter to find what looked like the manager of the licensing center. They went back and forth with a lot of headshaking while I waited wondering if they thought my license was a fake or invalid for some reason. The woman came back with a grim face and asked me if I am only licensed to drive an automatic vehicle because my license reads “Auto Driver License.” I explained that no, it likely meant automobile and my license is indeed valid for all passenger non-commercial vehicles. She accepted the explanation and I am now the proud owner of a WA license. Fortunately there is no local law requiring one to be able to drive a manual vehicle in order to receive a WA license, because that is something that I have yet to learn. And apparently for work I need to take a defensive driving course, in a SUV with a manual transmission. This should be interesting!