Ah, the memories. My first 0 sticker. I wondered if I would get one. It took a lot of work and conversation, but eventually I did.
You may or may not remember what a 0 sticker is. Here in Mexico City, there are restrictions on who can drive when. For example, a foreign vehicle (like ours) can’t drive between 5:30am-11am weekdays, one Saturday a month, and one day a week. Yes, that’s a lot of restrictions!
But there is a way out. If your vehicle is less that 8 years old, you can have it emissions tested for a small fee (for me around $23 Canadian), and you have the chance to get a zero sticker. That means you can drive whenever you like for 6 months, at which time you go back and try again.
I’ve done this many times now, and we got our 0 sticker when we came back to Mexico in November.
Here we are 6 months later.
The van went through the line quickly … then I waited, and waited, and waited. I spent a couple hours at the place, and was finally told that for some reason the "system" would not give me a zero.
So they were very helpful (they know me by now) and gave me my money back and suggested I try another Verificentro (where the test takes place).
So today I did.
Spending hours on something like this may remind you of the complexities of life here – there’s always something!
Anyway, I went to another place (a place that, as I recall, told me years ago that I simply couldn’t get a 0 because I was a foreigner).
Once again, they told me I couldn’t get a sticker because I didn’t have such-and-such, so I talked and explained and chatted and so on and so on….
Eventually, they felt they had enough paperwork to give it a try.
So I went into the prayer room (I’ll bet you didn’t know that Verificentros had prayer rooms! Well, ok, they call it a waiting room, but that’s the same thing, isn’t it?), and reminded myself that God is more powerful than any computer system. And that I would accept what He decided to do.
In no time, the tests were done – and I have a 0 sticker!
Praise the Lord!
So we can actually drive the van for another 6 months… then… we’ll see!
Our van being tested – can you find it?
Our other zero posts:
