Dealing with the police with only six months language training

Recently, John went to the airport with Mark Siekbert a fellow missionary in Mongolia to pick up a missionary who was coming into town. They were driving to the airport in a nine passenger van. On the way to the airport a policemen pulled them over. In Mongolia, a policeman sometimes stop drivers only to check their car registration and driver's license.

Mark was unaware that a nine passenger van requires a different endorsement on a driver's license. Seven passenger vans do not require such an endorsement. This causes no end of confusion as drivers wonder whether their van is considered a seven passenger van or a nine passenger van.

So the policeman checked the vehicle registration and Mark's driver's license and then confiscated his registration and license. Mark has only had a few lessons in Mongolian. John himself only has six months of Mongolian. So the responsibility fell on John to communicate with the police officer.

I was surprised to hear later that John was able to talk the policeman into allowing Mark to continue on out to the airport with the agreement that they would stop on the way back to clear up the confusion. So Mark and John went out to the airport, picked up their fellow missionary, and returned to discuss the issue with the policeman.

I was impressed that John was able to handle the situation as adroitly as he did. He's doing well with the language. On Sunday he spent some time talking with several Mongolians.