Visas and Plane Tickets

Next, we need visas and plane tickets. And lots of shots.

The visa process in Uganda is simple enough: fill out a visa application which is readily available online, attach the application and a money order to your passport, put everything in a priority mail envelope and enclose an empty envelope with postage affixed. Then wait.

But I learned last winter that getting the visa and using it can be two very different things. Last year, I was forced out of Uganda very suddenly by an Immigration Officer who told me I was there illegally. I never understood what I’d done, only that if I didn’t get out on the next available plane, I would be staying in Uganda for a long, long time. So with plans to stay for six months, I fled Uganda after only thirteen days with no idea what I’d done wrong. Before starting the trip, I had contacted the Embassy in Washington and followed their directions exactly, but it didn’t help.

So I was extremely careful as I packed up my information along with Jon’s and Jim’s and sent it off to Washington. I included all kinds of extra things, like letters of invitation from Uganda and sending letters from our church here which explained exactly what we would be doing in Uganda. I called the Embassy a few days later and learned that everything was fine. My visa had been approved.

And two days later, my passport came back – but not Jon’s or Jim’s! I called and talked to the Embassy again. They found the lost passports quickly, and promised to return them soon. Much to my relief, I received them Thursday. And today, we retrieved Bill’s passport from the post office. Another major hurdle crossed. But all these visas look exactly like the one I had last winter when I was unceremoniously ejected.

The three airplane tickets for my cohorts couldn’t have been easier. There were seats available and we bought them. Mine were a different story. Leaving Uganda very quickly last year meant walking into a Kampala travel agency and buying a roundtrip ticket. So today, I hold the America-Entebbe piece of that ticket and the Entebbe-America of my original ticket from last year. I had no trouble exchanging my old ticket for the return piece, but the Ugandan travel agent who issued the ticket last winter made a major error. She gave me a receipt that was marked “e-ticket,” then entered a code that said she gave me a paper ticket! I talked with the airline for more than an hour last summer and they told me everything was set. But when I went out to look at my reservation last week, there was no reservation to be found. I called the airline and they had no record of me at all. I finally spoke to a supervisor and was assured everything was fixed, but that I should go to our local airport and pay the exchange fee for the new ticket.

When I went to the airport yesterday, I was immediately asked for my paper ticket. Explaining didn’t help a thing at first, but eventually, after numerous calls by a patient gate agent, she convinced the people on the phone that I had lost the paper ticket that never really existed. She filled out a bunch of forms, took my $100 exchange fee, and gave me another receipt that declared me the proud holder of an e-ticket.

So we have our passports and tickets. Everyone has taken their shots without incident.

With four days to go, all I have to do is pack. That’s one bag for me and four 50-lb. duffle bags of school supplies for the sponsored kids!