Disorganisation Is Close To Annihilation

Your humble blogger, dear readers, would like to draw attention to the woeful state of organisation in this land of Mate and Tango. Coming mostly from the UK , as I know you do, I of course hear you cry, "But what about the British Postal Service?" and so forth. However, I feel I can compete.

In the past two weeks, your humble blogger has visited a total of six different institutions, spent over 350 pesos, and passed in total 8 hours waiting for the hideously disorganised staff in every single one to at least explain what the hell she is actually waiting for. She has been shouted at by a member of staff for something entirely out of her control, tricked by the bank into paying where she shouldn't have, and lied to by more than one employee of the Argentina Public Service Sector.

There is just no way to describe the frustration that you experience when you have walked for an hour to the bank and back, paid the equivalent of £40 that you just don't really have, photocopied every single page of your passport including the ones with nothing on them, and return to the original office only to be asked, with a tone of uncomprehending wonder, exactly why you haven't brought your certificate of previous convictions in Argentina. Why, dear readers?

1. It costs a grand total of 150 pesos to do this.
2. It involves going to the Police Beaureau at 8am in the morning, to wait with the multitude of Bolivians, in order to get your fingerprints done. This is, much like the dark ages, still done with ink. On every single finger.
3. It then involves going to the bank to pay two deposits.
4. It then involves going to OCA, the postal service, to pay more money and send everything off to Buenos Aires.
5. It can take anything up to a month to do.

And finally...

6. I WAS TOLD I DIDN'T NEED ONE.

Your humble blogger, however, did not complain. She did the above, visited every place, paid every peso. And then, on arriving at OCA, was told, contrary to what was written on the handy, university-provided leaflet, that the deposits are no longer paid at the bank, but at OCA. Despite the glaringly obvious fact that no one at the bank, nor at the university, knows that this is the case. Thankfully, the friendly guys at OCA were only too happy to help.

So there is now nothing left to do but wait. But fear not, dear readers. Your humble blogger has learned two valuable pieces of information from this Saga of Beauracratical Correctness Gone Mad:

1. First impressions always count. Much like in the OCA instance, problems tend to be fixed at a miraculous speed when you are wearing a low-cut, figure-hugging shirt.

2. In judging those naughty, naughty people who enter an office and proceed to blow the heads of anyone, we must not have sympathy, of course, but perhaps a glimmer of understanding. This blogger has been to the jaws of Beaureaucractical Hell, and whilst homicide is somewhat extreme, it was indeed a stroke of luck that there was nothing within throwing distance...