The past couple of weeks have been really tough. My boyfriend was away, and I’ve been dealing with the long process of dividing my 90-acre land into 100 smaller plots. Initially, we considered splitting it into 260 plots, but we realized it would be too difficult to get approved and the additional fees were discouraging.

First, the architect charged $2,000 to draft 260 maps. However, I discovered we had to submit these maps to the cadaster’s office, which is new in the rural North of Guatemala. Unlike the capital city, this area is heavily regulated due to its rural nature. The local public servants, overwhelmed with the influx of applications, take a long time to process them.

To start the land division, I had to request a copy of the map of the main parcel from the cadaster. Although this was supposed to take 10 days and cost $20, it took much longer due to workload issues. The director promised it wouldn’t take more than a month, but it was delayed even further because they ran out of the special paper needed for printing.

When the map finally arrived, it revealed that our land, which appears to have straight boundaries, actually doesn’t. We considered including the extra land within our fences since our neighbors had respected them for years, but it would be too complicated to split the neighbor’s land as well. We decided to ignore these minor discrepancies.

Then, I learned we needed an agreement from the office of protected areas because our land is near a protected forest. Although I was told this process would be straightforward and take only two days, it dragged on for weeks. Each time I called, I received conflicting information. Finally, when I visited their office in person, the legal team had approved my file, but the director, who needed to sign it, was away. When I returned, I found out my file was missing a map, which had somehow not been flagged earlier. Fortunately, I had the map with me. Then, there was another error on the file that needed correcting, requiring yet another signature from the away director.

Meanwhile, the original architect quit, and the new one was causing a lot of issues. He printed the maps on thick paper and used $1 stamps on each of the 100 maps. When I checked them, none were correctly labeled, and all incorrectly listed BF as the owner instead of our company. After spending three hours reconciling the errors, I sent him a detailed list for corrections. He repeated the same mistakes. Frustrated, I insisted he fix them. When I showed up for our next meeting, he hadn’t printed anything. This infuriated me, especially after he claimed I needed to give my approval despite my previous emails. The next day, he failed to show up again, and his colleague couldn’t proceed without him. He wasn’t reachable by phone either, possibly due to being drunk on payday.

I’m still waiting for my 100 maps and the letter from the protected areas office, losing patience as I deal with these delays. The architect already has $1,300 of our money, and starting over with someone else isn’t feasible. I mentioned to him that instead of submitting 100 maps, we’d start with 20 to minimize losses if they were rejected. The cadaster charges $15 per map, so losing $300 is better than $1,500. The architect probably didn’t like this idea as it meant delaying his next payment.

He’s getting $3,000 for a job that should have taken a week but has stretched to three. We submitted 100 plots because the architect charges $30 per plot, and the cadaster would cost $4,000 for 260 maps, making smaller plots a better choice if a buyer wants a smaller one.

Although I’m not too worried about getting the approval letter from the protected areas office now, dealing with an unreliable architect and having $1,300 tied up with him is stressful. I’m uncertain if I have the patience to continue.

What’s been your most frustrating experience with a public servant?