Illegal?

July 2nd, 2009
So the past couple of days have been really trying for us interns. We were supposed to have left for Livingstone yesterday, but we had to go and renew our visas before we left because we had only applied for a 30-day visa when we first arrived here in May. With the car packed with all of our stuff for Livingstone, we headed to the immigration office. After waiting in a line for about 20-30 min, they told us that there was a problem with our visas, we couldn’t renew them, but had to get a business permit to stay in the country, but the business permit was going to cost us a whole lot more than planned! So they told us to go to another office further into town the next morning. After searching forever for the office in downtown Lusaka, we got there and they told us the same thing: that we would have to pay about $400 each for a business visa to stay in the country, plus a late fee for being late in renewing our visas. It was all really frustrating because we thought all we would have to do was get our passport re-stamped when we went to the immigration office. We pulled all the money that we were going to use for our Livingstone trip together to pay for the visas, and we still aren’t sure if we are going to get to go to Livingstone now, because there might not be enough money in our budgets anymore. That would be disappointing, since we were supposed to see Victoria Falls and go on a safari, but I feel like God has a plan for us. For example, most of us girls have been getting sick in our stomachs from something we ate, and I stayed in my bed all day yesterday after we got back from the immigration office. It wouldn’t have been good if I had gotten sick on the 8-hour bus ride to Livingstone, so I thank God for timing! But as of now, I am officially an illegal immigrant in Zambia, with my passport locked up in an immigration office in downtown Lusaka, waiting to be processed so we can get business permits.