Trinidad Driver's License (1986)
I just returned from a trip to Ecuador. I was there on a mission trip related to church work. I've been going there off and on since 2001. It all started for me when a brother from the congregation I was attending was looking for people to accompany him to put on a youth camp there. I had a passport. I had been on a mission trip once before, to Trinidad. I was active in church activities locally. I didn't speak Spanish and I had somehow gotten through High School and college without a foreign language. Anyway, the mission kept going and so did I - now traveling to a different part of the country.
Thinking about that reminded me of my trip to Trinidad in the 1980s. We had several go to do some follow up work on some correspondence style evangelism. It was my first exposure to a foreign country and frankly one of my first airplane rides.
What I discovered as a young man is that not everyone thinks like me. I'm highly flexible - but when in charge, I'm rather detailed. Well, the leader of this event decided to rent a bunch of cars so we could do the follow up. He hadn't done his homewor, so after two days of driving he discovered that the rental car company didn't care if we had valid driver's license or not. That was between us and the law. So, we spent one morning at their equivalent of a DMV.
The leader decided to send us all through the lines to take the test since the test made no distinction between automobile drivers and commercial vehicle drivers. He figured if he kept paying for tests, he would eventually get enough drivers. His bet paid off. I became one of the drivers.
That was my first experience driving in a place other than the Southern or Midwestern United States.
Since then, I have driven in cities all across the US including some of the larger and denser ones like, Miami, Orlando, New York, Boston, Atlanta, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Minneapolis, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Seatle, Los Angles, and San Francisco. In Los Angles, one time, it was in a U-Haul (or Penske) pulling a trailer of High School Band equipment for their participation in the Tournament of Roses Parade.
I have also driven in other foreign countries since Trinidad. I've driven on the Autobahn in Germany. I've driven alone in Scotland - before GPS. I have driven in Ecuador and England - though not London.
In England, they must have seen Americans coming, because when my traveling companion requested an upgrade to handle the extra luggage we wound up with a fifteen-passenger van. That is not the best choice for some of the back roads we had to travel on. This insured that I was the designated driver for everyone.
Thinking about driving I have noticed some cultural differences in driving in various places. In the US, except for large central city areas it is pedestrian beware! In Ecuador it is driver beware! (See video starting at about 1:50).
In the US we think in terms of Right of Way! In Scotland and England and to some extent in Ecuador they seem to think more often in terms of Give Way! It is probably why Traffic Circles (or Roundabouts) seem to work better there.
In Trinidad, at every traffic light where there are two lanes there would be four or five cars side by side waiting for the light.
In the US a yellow light means to speed up so you don't get caught by the red light and a green light means (if you are first in line) proceed cautiously in case someone runs the red light. In Ecuador there are countdowns letting you know the light is about to turn green and drivers often start moving on one or two - so don't you dare run a yellow light.
In the US we have bumper stickers that say, "BACK OFF!" or "If you can read this, you're too close!" In Ecuador, if you still have six centimeters you haven't hit anyone.
In the US passing on a two-lane road requires a mile of visibility and a prayer that the driver you pass doesn't speed up. In Ecuador, they pass on winding turns and if somebody comes from the other direction the vehicle being passed and the oncoming vehicle keep moving but slide to the outside edge and you drive between them.
Being anywhere it is important to know the culture. Driving anywhere is about knowing the driving culture. Next time you think someone is driving crazy - remember they may have just got back from driving in a whole nuther world.
Be careful out there!
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