So, I thought I would write you all just another blog about what's going on right now in my life. I actually find it somewhat funny, but also frustrating. It's Zimbabwe. I must have this love-hate relationship with this country. I still think the country is great, and I would LOVE to enter the country right now...if only I knew they wouldn't try to arrest me if I went to try again. It might be a good story to say I was arrested in Zimbabwe, but the actuality would not be so...
This morning I left pretty early, thinking, "wow, I'm leaving Mozambique for a while, 4 weeks." I was on my way to Zimbabwe to go meet up with my sitemate Julie to do our travels for the next 4 weeks together. I've done this bit before just back in August when I went to Victoria Falls to do my marathon that I completed. It's a quick drive from Chimoio to the border crossing, and I ended up getting a great hitchhike that was taking me right into Mutare to the bus stop so I could catch the bus to Harare, where Julie is. I go through the line so I can get my passport checked and pay for the single entry visa. No big deal. Things seemed to be going fine. It's not like I have done anything illegal anywhere...Or did I?
There is a rule in Peace Corps, one that I don't really understand, and one that I broke. As PCVs, we are not allowed to go to Zimbabwe, unless we have special permission from our PC office and it's only like a max of 2 days in Victoria Falls. But in order to get to Victoria Falls, you either have to fly in or by land. And from Mozambique, by land means either through Zimbabwe or the long way around through Malawi and Zambia. It's a good 24 hours less time if going through Zimbabwe and a hell of a lot cheaper. So I go through, and I don't ask for permission because I was pretty sure I would be denied and it would be better to have a blind eye staring in my direction. I know. I'm bad. I'm a recalcitrant. (the R I have earned in my 2 years of service).
And then in October we had to get our Mozambique visas renewed, so we turned in our passports to PC to get that process done. There was a consensus with a couple of my friends that it may have been a better idea to take out my Zimbabwe visa in order to not get caught and kicked out. Okay, whatever, no big deal, right?
Wrong. Zimbabwe border control is not so fond of this. How they saw the tiny bit of marking that signified I had a stamp from Zimbabwe before, I have no clue. But they kept asking me, "Where is your visa?" "Who authorized to take it out?" "Write down why you took it out and who was the official who actually took it out." Oh my goodness! I was trying to come up with some kind of excuse that would get me out of this trouble so I could enter Zimbabwe, but also so that if I was caught would not make me go to jail or something... Well, at least I accomplished the second. I am not in jail.
They pulled me to the side and took me to a back office to explain this 'privately'. Looking back, this was probably my chance to offer them money to just let me through. "If we just give you another visa, how do we know you aren't just going to rip it out again?" "Your passport tells about you." I am still not sure if I would have flaunted money in front of him, would he have let me through, or would that have made him upset and I would be in jail right now?
So, I went outside, told the guy I was hitchhiking with that I was being denied through to Zimbabwe. He's a regular through the border crossing, and a guy he knew then was like, "Give me your passport, and I'll get this arranged." So my hitchhike guy said yeah, it's fine. The guy came back out said it may be $100. The visa is only suppose to cost $30. $70 more? That's not really in my budget...I told him I could do $50. He went back in and came back out, pulled me to the other side of the car, handed me back my passport and said I needed to return to Mozambique...fast..right now. Apparently that was all in insult and the guy behind the desk threatened that he was going to call the cops because tearing out a visa, an official document, from your passport is an arrestable offence.
Of course, I then left and came back to Chimoio. It's funny how all that stuff really added up and became this huge clusterf***. There is the chance that perhaps I could try it again tomorrow in hopes that the border control people would not recognize me (but, wait, I'm extremely recognizable here being a 6 foot blonde whitey who people tend to fear my size sometimes) and that this time they might not notice the little bit of stamp that was left over from the last time. It did seem that only by chance they noticed that little piece of stamp on the one page. If I would have gone the day before, would they have noticed? Who knows. But I do think my chance with this border crossing into Zimbabwe is over from the Chimoio side anyways. I need my personal passport...which expired in 2011...
Well, Zimbabwe, you will not get my money which I guess is a good thing anyways. I don't want to support Mugabe. But I do love the people and I do love the country...
This morning I left pretty early, thinking, "wow, I'm leaving Mozambique for a while, 4 weeks." I was on my way to Zimbabwe to go meet up with my sitemate Julie to do our travels for the next 4 weeks together. I've done this bit before just back in August when I went to Victoria Falls to do my marathon that I completed. It's a quick drive from Chimoio to the border crossing, and I ended up getting a great hitchhike that was taking me right into Mutare to the bus stop so I could catch the bus to Harare, where Julie is. I go through the line so I can get my passport checked and pay for the single entry visa. No big deal. Things seemed to be going fine. It's not like I have done anything illegal anywhere...Or did I?
There is a rule in Peace Corps, one that I don't really understand, and one that I broke. As PCVs, we are not allowed to go to Zimbabwe, unless we have special permission from our PC office and it's only like a max of 2 days in Victoria Falls. But in order to get to Victoria Falls, you either have to fly in or by land. And from Mozambique, by land means either through Zimbabwe or the long way around through Malawi and Zambia. It's a good 24 hours less time if going through Zimbabwe and a hell of a lot cheaper. So I go through, and I don't ask for permission because I was pretty sure I would be denied and it would be better to have a blind eye staring in my direction. I know. I'm bad. I'm a recalcitrant. (the R I have earned in my 2 years of service).
And then in October we had to get our Mozambique visas renewed, so we turned in our passports to PC to get that process done. There was a consensus with a couple of my friends that it may have been a better idea to take out my Zimbabwe visa in order to not get caught and kicked out. Okay, whatever, no big deal, right?
Wrong. Zimbabwe border control is not so fond of this. How they saw the tiny bit of marking that signified I had a stamp from Zimbabwe before, I have no clue. But they kept asking me, "Where is your visa?" "Who authorized to take it out?" "Write down why you took it out and who was the official who actually took it out." Oh my goodness! I was trying to come up with some kind of excuse that would get me out of this trouble so I could enter Zimbabwe, but also so that if I was caught would not make me go to jail or something... Well, at least I accomplished the second. I am not in jail.
They pulled me to the side and took me to a back office to explain this 'privately'. Looking back, this was probably my chance to offer them money to just let me through. "If we just give you another visa, how do we know you aren't just going to rip it out again?" "Your passport tells about you." I am still not sure if I would have flaunted money in front of him, would he have let me through, or would that have made him upset and I would be in jail right now?
So, I went outside, told the guy I was hitchhiking with that I was being denied through to Zimbabwe. He's a regular through the border crossing, and a guy he knew then was like, "Give me your passport, and I'll get this arranged." So my hitchhike guy said yeah, it's fine. The guy came back out said it may be $100. The visa is only suppose to cost $30. $70 more? That's not really in my budget...I told him I could do $50. He went back in and came back out, pulled me to the other side of the car, handed me back my passport and said I needed to return to Mozambique...fast..right now. Apparently that was all in insult and the guy behind the desk threatened that he was going to call the cops because tearing out a visa, an official document, from your passport is an arrestable offence.
Of course, I then left and came back to Chimoio. It's funny how all that stuff really added up and became this huge clusterf***. There is the chance that perhaps I could try it again tomorrow in hopes that the border control people would not recognize me (but, wait, I'm extremely recognizable here being a 6 foot blonde whitey who people tend to fear my size sometimes) and that this time they might not notice the little bit of stamp that was left over from the last time. It did seem that only by chance they noticed that little piece of stamp on the one page. If I would have gone the day before, would they have noticed? Who knows. But I do think my chance with this border crossing into Zimbabwe is over from the Chimoio side anyways. I need my personal passport...which expired in 2011...
Well, Zimbabwe, you will not get my money which I guess is a good thing anyways. I don't want to support Mugabe. But I do love the people and I do love the country...
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