Frustrambia!

Ahhhhh!!!

Yesterday I had by far the most frustrating "Africa" like day of my trip. Which is actually amazing and pretty nice, considering I've been here over 4 months now! It's really not that big of a deal, but since my expectations were so different then it felt a lot worse (plus I had a hot date to get to!). 

Basically, I had to renew (or extend?) my Zambian visa yesterday, since it marked exactly 30 days from when I entered the country on June 3rd. I went to the immigration office early and got there just as the employees were walking in (note: I rode in the cab of a flat-bed truck that was delivering security guards to their various locations. You might think that this isn't a very secure thing for such a company to do, but in their defense, the likelihood of finding an umusungu who would try to take advantage of them here is ridiculously low). 

Since I'd only been in Zambia for 37 days in 2009 and my visa was good for 90 days in a calendar year I was expecting them to simply stamp it, extend my visa to August 3rd, and then I'd  go to the orphanage for the Bible studies I was going to do there. 

WRONG.

Turns out that I made a serious blunder (or no one told me about it!) in telling the immigration office that I was here to work at a home for street boys. That's WORK, and it requires a work visa. A $200 work visa. 

!!!!

For the sake of my own sanity I will spare many of the details of the rest of the day. Here's what's important:

1. I was given an incomplete list of what I would need to bring with me, so when I came back later in the day I had to leave again.

2. I waited alone with two other people for 2 hours in the lobby, until 5 minutes before the office closed. Then the employee called all of us in, sat us down, then continued to work on our stuff right in front of us. I'm confused why he didn't do them one at a time to allow the other parties to leave earlier (i.e. 1.5 hours and 1 hour earlier!).

3. The Lebanese woman waiting with me was also misinformed about what she was to bring, even though she's lived here for 7 years, and was very upset that they didn't tell her key information. I was just happy that a non-Westerner was also upset. 

4. I eventually got my visa, 15 minutes after close. 

I wanted to verbally wound the guy, and it's good that my ride arrived just as stuff was finishing. I just left and tried to de-tox before I took out my aggression on an unworthy party. 

Saver of the day: I still got to go on a hot date with Karen! Woohoo!!! It was even sweeter because of the difficulties of the day. 

So if anyone wants to contribute a portion of that un-planned for $200, write me an email or just follow the instructions posted on my blog in March and April. 

Also news: I am returning to the US on August 21st! I'll be flying into Denver at 11:45 and beginning a two-month stint of traveling... all in a country whose language and culture I (mostly) know. I'm very happy to do so, even though transportation in the US is generally much more expensive than here. For now, though, I am quite content to be here in Zambia!