Interpol Adventures

This morning we visited Interpol. When I hear the word "Interpol", my mind conjures up the image of a powerful, all-knowing, all-penetrating organization with state-of-the-art technology (maybe that comes from watching too much CSI). Well, our experience today, at least at this La Paz branch of Interpol, couldn't be further from that image. We met our tramitador (the guy helping us with our paperwork) outside. As we walked in (no security check of any kind, mind you), we were directed up the stairs to the first floor - the place was kind of dark and the stairs rickety and squeaky. They also use the space under the staircase as storage... so we walked past a collection of old (and probably broken) chairs and tables. After going down a few different corridors, we ended up outside the Interpol office. Inside the Interpol "office" (really, it is one room) there were two policemen. I had to go first. They proceeded to fingerprint me (black ink on all ten fingers). After the fingerprinting, I was given a rag to clean off the ink (the rag was almost black from all the other fingers that it had cleaned prior to mine). Then came the time for questions: father's name, mother's name, address in the U.S., address in Bolivia, husband, children, etc. The guy appeared a little bit confused by my passport and asked me my place of birth (in the passport, it says "Bulgaria").
I answered: "Bulgaria".
Policeman: "Is that a state in the United States?" (since it's a U.S. passport).
I paused for a second.
Me: "No, that's a country in Europe."
Policeman: "Can you give me any other details about your place of birth?"
Me: "City of birth: Sofia. Country of birth: Bulgaria."
Policeman: "What was the name of the city again?"


So, I am not sure what they will be checking or how, but I would have imagined that Interpol's personnel would at least have a decent knowledge of countries. Maybe not know their exact geographic location, but to have heard of them. (Well, actually, he did know about Serbia, so I have to give him that. Funnily enough, Milos hasn't teased me about that yet.)