Certificat de Residence

In order to obtain a residency card here you have to jump through a lot of hoops. Some things you need are 10 passport size photos, a passport, around 10 pages of personal information (in French and Arabic) and my favorite the Certificat de Residence. What is the Certificat de Residence you ask? I have no idea. I think it is a certificate proving where you live. But it is all in French and I have no idea. I also had no idea how to get one. Luckily however I have a friend named Saaid who ‘gets things.’ Here are some of the things Saaid has obtained for us: an apartment, microwave, toaster oven, two gas heaters, couches, beds, and dressers. So we figured this mysterious Certificat de Residence would be no problem…

Saaid agreed to help us with this project. He needed four passport size photos of each of us (I know a photographer really well now), our passports, and a little bit of cash. We gave these items to him, no problem. Two weeks later, which was yesterday, Saaid called and said the Certificat de Residence was ready. “Wow that was quick,” we thought. We couldn’t meet with him yesterday to get the papers so he left them at our friends house. Our friend has a dog.

Snowy is a german shepherd mutt. She is just lovely. She is probably one of my favorite dogs in the world. Really friendly and very adventurous. When we first came here we were staying at Snowy’s master’s house and in the mornings she would escape over the gate and follow me to school. She was such good company. She would even try to get into the taxis with me. One time she followed Katie and I to a restaurant, waited outside while we were eating, and then walked us home.

Snowy is typically an outside dog. However two weeks ago, around the same time our Certificat de Residence was being processed, one of her adventures got the best of her. It is believed she got into a skirmish with another dog. She had bad cuts on her legs and one of her paws was broken. This meant she had to be nurtured back to health inside the house. She had to take special medicine and stay on bed rest. Snowy is doing much better now, but she is still sleeping inside.

This is why when Saaid dropped off these very important papers Snowy was in the house. Apparently there were other papers on the table as well, but while no one was looking Snowy, God love her, decided to eat my Certificat de Residence. Katie’s was perfectly fine, it was just mine that was chewed, slobbered, and ruined.

Now I won’t be lying when the authorities ask me why I can’t produce the proper documentation. I will honestly reply, “A dog ate my papers!”