Cars and bling, bling

Somebody told me once that Palestinians observe only three things when meeting a stranger and sizing them up - their shoes, their watch, and their car. I think I would pass the acceptable line in the first two categories, but as for the third - forget it! I've written here before about my piece of cr@& car. Yesterday the annual registration on it officially expired requiring me to figure out how to officially interact with Israeli bureaucracy once again.

As I've learned is the case with most foreigners who unofficially live in the West Bank (that is, unofficially to Israeli officials who we convince that we live on the other side of the green line), the anticipatory anxiety involved with dealing with Israeli officials is often much greater than the anxiety bore by the actual interaction. So was my case today with my car registration.

First, I had to find a post office to pay my registration fee. No easy task in a city where twisting, one-way streets suddenly lead to unmarked dead ends. The task was made easier when I was directed to a shopping mall just across the separation wall. The bank had the "take a number" customer service method which usually makes things organized, but the number machine was broken. Its actually a typical experience of mine with Israeli bureaucracy - its slightly disorganized and broke. After a 30 minute wait (people do everything from pay car fees to electric bills to actually send a piece of mail at the post office), I was off to the testing center.

The testing center is a fairly new facility located in the shadows of the separation wall specifically to serve Israeli Arabs, it actually surprised me that Israel would make it this easy, but it was. The Israeli Arab workers took pity on me (since we could not communicate in Hebrew or Arabic, as my car vocabulary in Arabic is quite limited), and did everything they could to get my car to pass the tests. My registration was officially approved, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief to realize I did not have to do this for at least another 12 months!