What? I Have a Car But Can’t Drive It?

This past weekend, after a nice time with Mayra’s mother for Mother’s Day on Friday (in Mexico that day is always May 10), I attended a day of conference and workshop with Miguel, a fairly new believer from our church, and Victor, our oldest son (intern) visiting from Boston. Keegan Williamson and Bryan Smith shared two themes…Lessons from the Life of David and Developing a Holistic Leadership Perspective. There were about 25 men there from probably 5 different churches.

When we arrived we were told that the program “Doble No Circula” was in effect. Due to horrible air quality over the past week, this program was put into effect over the weekend, which means:

Cars with license plates ending in 7 and 8 cannot drive the second Saturday (this is normal).
But the “double” parte is the whammy…all cars over 10 years old with license plates ending in odd numbers were also taken out of circulation, plus all plates from other states.

Ok, think about this. If you have a car that happens to be 2004 or older, you cannot drive if your license plate ends in 1,3,5,7,8 or 9! These particular rules are very much enforced,  prompting big problems (vehicle taken to the municipal holding area) or big bribes (upwards of $100).

The other curious dynamic…if you don’t happen to hear this announcement, you just don’t know. Information is nearly impossible to find on the Internet as well!

We didn’t know. I picked up Miguel at 6:30 a.m. and drove to the event, about an hour away. We arrived without incident. While there I was informed about the driving restriction. What to do? Actually, the town were the conference was is far enough outside of Mexico City that the restrictions did not apply…but how to get home? One option was to wait till 10 p.m. when the restriction was lifted. The other option…try to find a route that was far enough outside the city, then attempt to drive home. That’s what we did. And we made it without so much as seeing a patrol car.

So…if you have a car that you can drive anywhere you want any time you want, be thankful! Life is not so easy for some of us!

Quote of the Day: Some people are deceived into thinking that positional authority is the strongest authority to which we can appeal. How unwise it is to abandon spiritual, moral, and relational authority to grasp positional authority, which is not strong. It is infantile and weak. Neil Cole. Organic Leadership: Leading Naturally Right Where You Are (p. 183).