*SIGH*

Well, today I decided to go up to the embassy with Josh and visit with some friends and eat lunch. One of my Moroccan friends (F) wanted Andrew to come to her house this afternoon to play with her children. She has a pool, playstation, and all the things a 6 year old boy would love. I agreed and dropped off Josh and the girls at the house and headed out.
I was turning into F's neighborhood and a car hit me. Since I was turning left and the car was speeding, it was my fault. Fine. I have insurance. I don't care. Tell me where to sign and I will. Well, I called F and she sent her husband and son to come get Andrew. He was getting scared because there were LOTS of onlookers surrounding our car. Finally the embassy people came to translate, etc.
Turns out a worker at the embassy cancelled our insurance last week because we were leaving but didn't tell us! She is currently on vacation this week and next week so we'll have to talk to her supervisor about this horrible mistake.
So, it was explained to me that we would have to take the other car (which was a Mercedes) for an estimate and I would have to pay it before I could leave the country. I could tell by looking at the car that I'd have to pay for a bumper, fender and light. I was also quite ticked off that this worker at the embassy did this.
So we head to the police station for me to store my car because I can't drive it. They open the gates to the police station so the car will be behind the walls of the station. Then they suggested I remove the radio and any other valuables. I was thinking "Shouldn't a police station be the one place that would be SAFE to store my car?" Then we head over to the Mercedes dealership for the bad news. I could tell by the body language of the workers there that they were very rude to the owners and the person with me from the embassy (H) explained that they said that it would be 3 or so days to give an estimate and that they would need to keep the car for about 22 days to fix it. This couple couldn't go that long without their car. Then H got on the phone with some friends, etc and suggested we take it by a friend of a friend's body shop. We got there and the estimate ended up being about $1600 which was MUCH less than I expected. H explained that had the dealership done it, it would have been at least $3,000.
So we head back to the police station and the officer decided that since it wasn't technically my fault about the insurance that they would not fine me. Five hours after I left to drop off Andrew, I returned home sunburned, sweated down and tired.
We missed our appointment to pick up our translations so Josh will do it first thing in the morning and hope for the best there. Since the car is not insured, we can not use it anymore. We are quite frustrated about that because we will now have to pay a taxi or driver to go run all of our errands because of this person's mistake.
Meanwhile Andrew is still at F's house. He called to tell me that he was having a wonderful time and F asked if she could keep him until "tonight." It's almost 8pm and he's still there. I'm glad he's having a blast. Poor guy really deserves that will all the stress at home.
As for me, I'm not letting this get me down. I would like some good things to happen soon though. Getting to fly home this weekend would be VERY NICE. We'll see. . .
--Rachel