fingerprints

The school I work for has arranged a Long Stay Permit for me since I'm supposed to be working here for a year. This type of permit allows you to live and work in Indonesia up to 12 months. This kind of permit also means an astonishing amount of paperwork and money. Indonesian bureaucracy is slow as a turtle and extremely unintelligible.

This morning I have been to the Police Station for the third time in two weeks, they wanted my fingerprints again. Do they think they change from time to time? Two funny things always happen when you have your fingers stained with ink: first, there's never water to clean yourself and second, after you have managed to wipe the ink off with a borrowed tissue, the officer always comes back with a frown on his face and a magnifying glass in his hand and haves you repeat the procedure because there's something wrong.

Not only want they your fingerprints but also your weight, your height, the colour of your eyes, the number of teeth (they check them as if you were a horse) and many other things. I keep thinking if it weren't easier to just take a picture of me and ask for a medical check-up. Do they think I'm going to starve myself in order to look different and get away without paying them? (The Long Stay Permit obliges you to pay a million rupees every time you exit the country)