A Series of Unfortunate (and fortunate) Events

David with giant red-spiky caterpillar

At the risk of dating myself to the distant past, I can recall, as a boy, watching a show called 'Hee Haw'. It was a country-themed variety show that featured country singers like Roy Clark and Glenn Campbell, as well as a cast of rubes who did corny skits--usually repeating certain well-loved (and well-worn) gimmicks.

One such routine was a dialogue where a barber would be telling a customer (Roy Clark) a story, and when he finished a sentence the customer would say "That's good" to which the barber would reply "No that's bad" then elaborate on why things took a turn for the worse, to which the customer would then say, "That's bad!" to which the barber would reply "No that's good", and explain why things again took a turn for the better. This would go on for several minutes before resolving in some punchline (which usually was an unflattering poke at the barber's wife.) sample here.

I think, living here has given me a new perspective on this kind of story, particularly when it comes to advancing a processs through a bureaucracy, such as immigration. In reality, we learn to lower our expectations, the skits in Hee Haw end with a positive punchline, ours, not so much. We get used to disappointment when it doesn't work out. This week we are nearing the end of such a process that will either end well or not so well, and you (like us) will be left in suspense until the next blog entry. But it starts something like this;

We have a 6 day weekend coming up and have decided to visit our old stomping ground Burundi. 

That's Good

No that's bad, we need a visa to travel to Burundi.

That's bad.

No that's good, because there is an embassy in Tanzania.

That good.

No that's bad, the embassy is in Dar which is a 14 hour drive from Arusha.

That's bad.

No that good, because we have connections to an MCC partner in Burundi who can get us an authorization letter to get a visa when we arrive at the Bujumbura airport

Oh thats good.

No that's bad. They went to the immigration office and the guy who signs those letters is not in town.

Oh that's bad,

No that 's good. They did approve our visas and all we need to do is go to the embassy and get the stamps.

Well that's good.

No thats bad, it took so long to get this news that we don't have time to send our passports to the embassy in Dar and get them back in time.

Oh that's bad.

No that's good, because our agent we have worked with here just happened to be in Arusha on his way to Dar and we gave him our passports to take down to the embassy personally. 

Oh that's good. 

No that's bad, when he got there he found that Burundi immigration had only sent my name down to the Tanzanian embassy as approved for a visa. 

Oh that's bad. 

No that's good. I contacted our Burundi and they were able to go to immigration and get the other visas approvals released and sent to Tanzania immediately.

Oh that's good. 

No, that's bad. The embassy had already closed for the day and we were leaving in 2 days.

Oh that's bad. 

No that's good. Our agent went back early the next morning and the names were on the list and he was able to give them our passports to be stamped. 

Oh that's good. 

No that's bad. He spent 7 hours waiting for them to put the appproved visas in the passports.

Oh that's bad.

No that's good, he was able to get to DHL before it closed and sent us the passports with a guarantee from the clerk that they would in Arusha tomorrow.

That's good. 

No that's bad. When I checked the tracking number it said they would arrive by Friday, which is a day too late.

Oh that's bad...

Actually the story is not over yet. I think the passports will arrive in Arusha tomorrow, and we may well get them and get on the plane to Burundi on Thursday morning. But we may fail despite Herculean efforts to make this work. I will say that in my experience, despite much stress, things often do work out for the best, but I have also had ample opportunity to 'get used to disappointment'.

For readers of this blog though, you will find out next week when I either write a report of our 6 days in Burundi, or a long weekend in Arusha. 

The week prior could be characterized as a series of unfortunate (and fortunate) events as well, in some ways related to the stress around getting our visas for Burundi. It included misplacing numerous items including keys, and my work bag, (bad) all of which eventually turned-up--so that's good.

We also enjoyed the final week of cousin Julie's visit. Rebecca was able to take Julie out to a few other sites in town during the week on her days off. They went to a glass blowing factory at a crafts market and coffee lodge near the kids' school. Julie even cooked us a Greek meal one day during the week as well.

Julie went on a safari to Ngorongoro on Friday and Saturday and had a rare day of good weather on the first day. Her bike trip on day 2 at Lake Manyara was not as good and ended when everyone found themselves in deep mud about 30 minutes up the bike path. She also reported the car getting a wheel stuck in a muddy ditch and having to be pushed out. She was happy to be back in Arusha on Sunday.

Oren with African nachos

Despite all of this, she said it was worth the visit to Ngorongoro where she saw many animals. We met her after church in town and had a lunch at a Mexican restaurant we had not tried before. I can't say the food was bad, but I think Afro-Mex can be added to the styles of Mexican food alongside Tex-Mex and Cali-Mex.

Before the weekend, Julie treated us to a date night last Thursday by babysitting the kids. We found out that there were swing dance lessons being taught at a restaurant by some friends of ours and decided to check it out. That's good. ---No that's bad. That was the night we had to drop off the passports with our agent and we arrived an hour late to the restaurant. But we did get in on the last dance and did have fun and ended the evening having very nice 'adult' conversation with Vance and Beth-Marie. (Our dance teaching friends.) They are also school teachers at one of the international schools in town. Interestingly, Vance was also the person who preached the sermon for Earth day this past Sunday.

Rebecca and I both had church responsibilities during the week as we are both on various committees and each had 2 meetings during the week. I think you really know you are not 'the new guys' anymore when you are on a committee or two. Truthfully the church has opportunities and challenges as one of the only international English medium churches with a lay led congregation. It really does require sharing around a lot of work and having to work together on the problems. 

Despite the challenges of the week, I did enjoy the return to 'normalcy' that came with the kids back in school for nearly two full weeks before their next break. It has meant swimming regularly and going into the office with Rebecca. The pool water temp has not dropped much in the past week, but we do regularly swim in a downpour.

Work was not excessively busy, as we are between reporting periods, and we did enjoy on one afternoon, watching a large earth mover get stuck in a ditch across the street from our office window. After trying to lift and grind his way out, they finally brought another even larger earth mover over to haul him out. I am sure they were having a "That's good--No that's bad" day.

Stay tuned for the next installment: Our Burundi adventure..or not.