Cultural Differences...

I hit a teeny-tiny wall today. I have to renew my visa every 30 days while in Zambia and since I was in town today and it expires next week, it seemed like a good idea to stop at the immigration office to handle it. I’m a horrible procrastinator, so I was pretty proud of myself for being so on top of things. Uh huh…I should have known better.

Apparently, there was some confusion as the immigration officer couldn’t figure out why I was there today when my current visa was still good for another week. I explained that I didn’t know if I would be back in town before it expired so I wanted to be safe and do it now. This caused lots of confusion, and led to a diatribe about how I was unprepared and should know my plans better. Also, there was a discussion about how I would not get locked up for coming in a few days after the visa expired to renew it. I was later assured by friends that preferring to do something later rather than early is common in Zambia. Who knew?

All’s well that ends well, but it was a definite lesson in patience and knowing when to just give in, apologize, and wait for the stamp.

-Caitlin

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