We left Madisi (the area in which we were training for 2 weeks) on Saturday morning at 5am. We traveled about 10 hours via very crowded busses to Mbinga. We spent the night in Mbinga on Saturday, and we were going to leave in the morning to go to our school! Well…plans don't always work out. We ended up being postponed a day here in Mbinga. We have stayed in a really nice hostel with running water and a shower for two nights rather than 1. So today, Monday morning, after waiting two days to leave here and go to our village, we were so excited to go off to our home village of Malindindo.
So this morning as we walk out the door of our hostel, 2 immigration officers in uniforms approach Abby, Briana, and I, and ask us for our passports. All of our passports, licenses, VISAs, and money are still in Madisi (10 hours away) in a safe. (They keep all our documentation for us so it doesn't get lost or stolen.) We have no documentation to show the guys, and we don't speak Swahili. So the man that is escorting us from Village Schools shows up, and shows the immigration officers a photocopy of our passports. We were so relieved that he had that photocopy. The immigration officers said the photocopies weren't enough, and that they wanted to see more paperwork. So the immigration officers take us girls and our escort James in a Land Rover to the immigration office of Mbinga. There we played the waiting game.
We waited in the immigration office (a 10x10 room) for about 4 hours, and they finally received a fax of our VISAs. Some poor person from Village Schools in Madisi had to open the safe, drive to a place with electricity and a fax machine, and then fax them a copy of the VISAS. Upon receiving the fax, they said it was too blurry, and they wanted a new fax sent. Poor James looked so stressed out. He is responsible for 3 American girls who don't know Swahili, and all of their luggage. He is such a good guy though, and really straightened out the situation. Abby, Briana and I really got to know the immigration officers though. They knew some English, and would say things like "I pray to God every day that I marry a white woman." and "Do you have husbands and boyfriends? Do you want to get married?" and "If you marry a Tanzanian, you can become a citizen here." Abby and I endured the ordeal by speaking Spanish to each other.
After 7 hours, they finally let us go home, even though they only had a blurry fax of our VISAs. After we left, James informed us that we could have been locked up in jail, but they let us go. Wow. All because we didn't have a copy of our VISAs with us.
We are again, in the hostel, day 3, and hopefully will leave tomorrow to go to our villages. I'll keep you updated!
Romans 8:28,
Liz
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3 comments:
Jan just read your most recent post outloud to us in the office. We all giggled as we pictured you saying some of these things to us :).
Jan: "Speaking spanish was briliant, are you interested in any of the guys???"
We miss you & love you & pray for you!
LIZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! i just starting reading your blog after katie brugger told me about it yesterday! it's already bookmarked and i plan on sending you e-mails as well. love you so much! your blog entries are awesome. you're in the jordan's prayers and we look forward to hearing how God works in your life in Africa. you're A-MAAAZZINNNGGG.
I miss you, little bird!! Write us soon!
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