We got a car!!! After seeing accident after accident (all involving motos), we decided that it just isn't safe to be driving around on a moto anymore. Especially with our little girl on there!! So we got a car! It's a Toyota Rav 4, which is a really good sized car for Bamako and it's good to have 4 wheel drive here. I am soooo happy about it.

But my happiness was immediately shot down by the stress of driver's licenses. See, I have a US driver's license, but it is going to expire in 2 months and we can't renew online anymore. So I knew I would have to somehow get a Malian license. Then my SO knows how to drive but does not have a license. I was even more worried about how he was going to get his license. Everyone was saying he had to go to driving school, even though he knows how.

Well here's how it went down (just in case you are ever in Mali and need a driver's license.
Step 1. Do all the research I can about Malian DLs. Find almost nothing. Can't find an address for the testing center. Can only find bits of information on what documents you need. But it all sounds pretty stressful.

Step 2. Take every possible document I can think of. Birth certificate plus French translation with translation certificate. Copy of DL plus translation plus certificate. Passport copy. A police certificate of residence (spend 2 hours at police station getting that). Work contract. Bank account papers. Paystub. 4 ID photos. EVERYTHING!

Step 3. Have one of my SO's friends go with us to the Office Nationale de Transports since we have no clue where it is.
(Now, here's where being a foreigner has great advantages)
Bypass all the people waiting (I know, life isn't fair). Sit down with the guy and start the long process of looking through my documents. He finds a problem with EVERY single one. They just do that to make it harder for you though, and maybe get more bribes. So I go ahead and argue my way out of every.single.one. Ha!

Step 4. Realize that my SO has brought the wrong birth certificate (yes, he has multiples- some of them have different birth dates and different names even. No, he is not a spy....just someone who lives in a place with crazy paperwork). We run home to get that.

Step 5. Talk to the guy about possibly doing a "special session" just for us. For the regular session, you go on Tuesday and take the written exam in a room with 70 other people and then you come back Wednesday to take the driving exam and then wait a week or so for your license. So the guy says that he will accept doing a "special private session" for us,.....for a price. Of course, in Mali we have to bribe officials all the time. So here it goes again. All I want is my license and I know how much easier it'll be if we pay the price. So we do.

Step 6. They now have all of our papers ready and they have taken our money but now they tell us to wait around until there are fewer people so that we'll be more "at ease". Sketchy. Sit around and stare at walls for awhile.

Step 7. One of the guys asks us to come outside to talk in private. He gives us a study-guide that I guess they don't usually give people and tells us to study up. Five minutes later, he takes the book. The book really just stresses us out. There are super specific questions in French about blood alcohol level (in metric!) and how many kilometers per hour the average person walks. I am starting to get really nervous about the written test.

Step 8. Finally, it's time. He takes us into a room and does this whole official speech about why they test us and how the test will be. He starts the test (projected images of French road scenes that couldn't be further from driving in Bamako with multiple-choice questions). We cheat throughout the test. Not that I'm proud of cheating, but neither of us know French technical words and my SO doesn't all of the French road signs. Plus the guy was going from question to question so quickly and my SO's French isn't all that.
The test was supposed to be 30 question and the examiner just quits after 20. We can tell that he really just doesn't care. He already has his "bonus" money and he just wants to go home.

Step 9. Road test. So he had told us that the road test was partially on their "course" (dusty field) and then outside in traffic. I go first. I check my mirrors and put on my seatbelt. Ask him to put on his seatbelt and he says no. Okay, then. I drive forward. He points for me to go right. Then right. And then right. Then he says, "Stop. You're husband can come do his test now". He makes us just drive in one circle!! That's it!

Step 10. He shakes our hands and says that we passed (WOOHHOO). And that we should come back on Friday to get our licenses.

So the moral of the story. When in Mali, bribe.