Paperwork and Travel Arrangements

~ Elijah's Passport Photo ~ March 2012...

We were getting a bit nervous on Saturday when the travel agent wouldn’t send us a booking confirmation for our Monday flight to Accra, Ghana to attend a joint retreat with Lutheran Bible Translators. We had tried to make the reservation a month in advance. The only catch was that we didn’t have a passport for Elijah yet. So the travel agent said to wait until we were certain we would have the travel documents in place—probably good advice since the change ticket / cancellation fee was some $250 per ticket and if we couldn’t get Elijah’s paperwork in order we’d have to cancel all four of our family’s tickets. She promised to monitor the flight and let us know if it started to fill up.

It’s not like we hadn’t been trying to get Elijah’s passport—it’s just a long, involved process. After waiting weeks for a courier to procure Elijah’s Kenyan birth certificate, Shauen finally had to go downtown himself and try and get it done. Fortunately, it only took one day—one day of walking all over downtown Nairobi with Josiah on his shoulders, waiting in lines, filling in paperwork, going behind the counter, taking Josiah potty, waiting at a big man’s desk, following the paperwork here and there across the office, taking Josiah potty again, and finally into the printing office—where the birth certificates are printed—only to have the power go out moments before it dropped into the document tray. Not all the power, mind you, just the electrical outlets that power the computers and printers. "I'm sure I could fix this if they let me," Shauen thought to himself. “They're working on the power. Come back later.” Sure enough, later in the day Elijah’s Kenyan Birth Certificate was waiting for us—no bribe necessary. Now that’s a successful day—but only the first step.

The next step is to schedule the appointment at the US Embassy to get Elijah’s US Birth Certificate, Social Security Number, and US Passport. We would have managed just fine except that those applications require pre-screening before you can schedule an appointment and gmail spammed the reply from the Embassy telling us all was in order and setting our appointment! After missing appointments and resending emails (apparently into the ether), we manage to get through on the phone to be told, “Oh, Hi! I have it all right here—I just need you to come in!” So we finally get into the embassy ten days before our trip to Ghana. Sign the papers, take Josiah potty, take the oath, and pay the fees… “I’ll send this to Washington. They’ll process and mail the passport back here. You should be able to pick it up on Friday. If it’s not here by then I’ll print you an emergency passport.” Great. To clarify, that's the Friday before our early-morning Monday flight to Ghana. We still need to get the Ghanaian Visa into the passport after picking it up from the US Embassy.

Friday morning the passport is, indeed, at the US Embassy, and the Ghanaian Embassy is wonderfully cooperative—Elijah’s visa was issued the same day. The moment we have the Ghana Visa in Elijah’s passport, Shauen calls the travel agent, “We have it—please, now, book the tickets!” “Okay!” she replies.

Saturday at noon our agent calls, “Did you get your tickets yet? I’m going in to the office now, I couldn’t stop thinking about your reservation. Do you think it would be better to fly on Tuesday instead of Monday?” "Um. No." We should have known with that little "Tuesday" comment. That's the last time we hear from our travel agent. No booking confirmations show up and the agent doesn’t pick up her phone again.

So Monday morning we go to the airport without tickets to be told that the flight is overbooked already and we’re not on the list. The airline agent books us a ticket for the next day but insists we’ll get onto today’s flight. We even pre-pay for upgrades in case we have to fly business-class (which we don’t end up using and refunding that upgrade purchase took another month and a half of phone calls and in-person visits).  Our very friendly airline agent walks us to the ticket counter to make sure we get onboard. The ticket agent, however, is a bit befuddled by the whole thing. He has to manually enter all the ticket info because the just-bought tickets are not yet percolated through the system. While he's working, the flight is closed, locking him out with us half-checked in. He gets it reopened and continues to work as the clock ticks past the advertised "The gate closes 20 minutes before the flight." “You’ll make it,” says the ticket agent. “Really? How does that work?” we think to ourselves. Finally he hands us 3 tickets - somehow not hearing or seeing the baby that Krista's been nursing over the past 45 minutes. "They'll give you a ticket for the baby at the gate." "Our luggage?" "I'll make sure it gets on the flight." "Uh-huh," we think as we note that the flight should depart in a matter of minutes. "Just hurry!" he calls out as we frantically bundle our family towards immigration.

Immigration officials, meanwhile, aren't known for hurrying. And the nervous, frenzied look doesn't get you through any faster. As the immigration official tells us that we really need to get the children's paperwork in order we remember all the times we had attempted to do just that. "They wouldn't give the children re-entry passes." "Well they should." "I went there and tried and they said the children don't need them." "Well they do." "Okay. I tried and they refused but I'll try again." "They shouldn't have refused. And you need to get this one a dependent's pass." "Yes, okay, I just got his passport on Friday. I'll get him a dependent's pass." "You'll have to buy a visa for them when you come back." "Yes, okay, I understand." "You've taken too long with this one." "Yes, okay, I'm working on it." "They should give you re-entry passes for them." "I know - we're very late for our flight." "Oh. Here you go."

Elijah was issued a handwritten lap-baby ticket at the gate as promised. We were obviously the last people onto the plane and all eyes were on us as Shauen fought Josiah's 23-lb FAA-certified car seat up the aisle and into place while Elijah wailed in Krista's arms. So we made it to Accra as promised on that very flight. But our luggage didn't - it came the next day. As it turns out, our travel agent had never booked anything and was scared to tell us so when she realized the flight was already full. She later conveyed deep tearful apologies through a coworker. Meanwhile, Shauen's back locked up for the entire week of the retreat - perhaps related to the anxiety of travel or the lugging of an increasingly non-compliant Josiah and his car seat on the sprint through the airport and into the window-seat of the plane.

While getting to the retreat was quite an adventure, we loved our week of refreshment and fellowship with fellow missionaries. The journey home was a little less anxiety-inducing. Although when we got back to Nairobi after the retreat we definitely felt like we needed a vacation.

-Shauen