At the DMV office - California Driver's Test

Did I ever think I'd learn to drive a car? It's been a long time since I was born, a long time since I was a teenager. And now, when I am in the US, when driving a car has become a necessity, I am reading up the Driver's Handbook and writing tests and praticing driving on the road.

I got my Learner's Permit a year ago, in November 2008, at the first attempt at the written test. That itself was awesome, considering that I had never thought I'd ever drive a car in my life. I was handed the license. But what next? It took me many months to make time to go out and hold the steering wheel.

The first issue I was faced was the lack of large parking lots in Santa Barbara, unlike in big cities, to start the first stpes to using the steering. My Equal Half was too scared to set me out on the road right away, so I had to have a few hours at least, learning to turn the steering.

We found a moderately sized parking lot near out house, close to a park, where I practised for a few evenings. But one evening, we were shoo-ed away from there, as they wanted no one around that parking at night. If I was not to practise at night, there was no place to practise during the day, when almost all parking lots are filled with vehicles.

With no place to learn the first lessons, my practise stopped completely for a few months. Then, one day, my Equal Half and I were passing a school on a weekend, and noticed the vacant parking area of a nearby school. From then started my weekend practise sessions. Almost every Saturday and Sunday, I would make rounds of the area, on the road. That was where I learnt to make left turns and right turns, to reverse the car, to park, and to horn.

A few months on, graduated to main road. First, it was the smaller ones, then the others like Alamar and State Street. In September, I went on the highway for the first time on our way to our Sequoia National Park vacation. Since then, I've been consistently at it, gathering the 50 hours of practise and more.

And now, the big problem has confronted me. My Learner's Permit has ended, and I need to get another one, so that I could give my Behind the Wheel driver's test. One more written test to get a Learner's Permit? That's a lot. Wan't it just last year that I wrote one?

Being a Mentor

Today I received a call I had long waited for. The call from the Mentor Program. Months ago, I had seen the invitation for Mentors to children in difficult circumstances, and I had responded. A few days later, I attended the Orientation meeting, and was given a blue file with papers, and some discussion about why all the participants wanted to be Mentors.

Almost every one had the desire to help a child. Although some, like me, had arrived at the office with the hope that there would be emotional bonding, we were advised to be just Mentors and not to get involved in the child's family life. Almost all the children asking for a Mentor had family circumstances that created problems in their studies. They needed to improve their grades, and also to find a direction in life.

Getting a Mentor for a child is a privilege, as there are fewer Mentors than the number of children requesting for one. A Mentor voluntarily agrees to give an hour a week to the child, the Mentee. The main aim of the program is to give a direction to the life of the child, amidst her dire family circumstances.

A Mentee is not alone in the world, like an orphan or an adopted child. She has a family, also in most cases one or more siblings, and one or more parents. But the families they belong to are in trouble, like divorced parents, single parent, abusive family, etc.

The work of the Mentor is not as easy as it seems on the surface. Apart from guiding the child in studies and extra curricular activities, the Mentor also has to support the child in all the situations it falls at home, without openly doing it. She has to be with the Mentee, and at the same time, also has to be careful not to overshadow the parent/s around.

I don't know how this experience of being a Mentor would pan out to be. This is the first time in my life that I am undertaking such a child related project. While growing up, my sisters have been quite an involvement. But that was blood relations. This is something so different. I am quite full of anticipation about the whole thing.