June 28, 2011

  • Tip Calculator

    I always thought it was funny that people buy all of these "Smart Phones" and they only make us dumber.  They come with random gadgets or apps that will almost do anything, maybe even brush my teeth.  One of the dumbest app I ever saw was a tip calculator.  If you have to rely on a tool to tell you how much you should pay a server you have a problem.  Can the phone interpret how well you were served?  How about the quality of the food?

    Well yesterday, we met a walking tip calculator.  He is a friend of a friend that was helping us with our saga over the immigration.  We were nearing the date where we either had to leave the country to get another stamp in our passport, or do something else.  Well this man met with us and informed us of a free service that the Immigration of Uganda offers.  It is called a visa extension.  Now do not get all literal, we have a six month visa, so they are not actually extending our visas.  Rather, they extend the visitor passes that you get stamped into your passport at the airport.  But to our surprise, it was free!  Well, it is free-ish!

    Apparently the process for getting the extension is very long.  Long enough that you would need to apply for it before you even got to Uganda, if you wanted to get it before the pass expired.  So if you do not get my drift, it is impossible to get for FREE.  No, no, you GET to tip someone to get it done.  Now my gut told me that this was a bribe.  It sounded like a bribe.  it smelled like a bribe.  It looked like a bribe.  But it was a tip.  We had the opportunity to pay a man named Sam (I pray that the Ugandan Government reads this blog, finds the man named Sam, and punishes him for receiving money for a free service while in a government office) a tip.  We were originally told by our "friend" (aka Tip Calculator) that the tip should be in the amount of one hundred thousand shillings (which is really only $50, but sounds more dramatic when you put it shillings).  When we got to the office, the man explained how another person had to be involved so the "tip" needed to be double.  Yes, now they wanted TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND SHILLINGS!

    The scariest part to all of this was that we had to leave the money and our passports with this man for a small period, over his lunch.  It was already awkward enough that we are being dishonest and paying someone to do a free service, which already makes you question his morals, but leaving our passports too.  Aaaahhhh!  But we had to do it.  We have no choice.  Either that or we mobilize our entire family and get on a day long bus ride, one way, and pay five times all of this to do the appropriate means of getting our passports stamped.  So we did it... reluctantly.

    Well we returned to the office after lunch.  Sure enough, our passports were extended.  We can now legally stay in Uganda for another two months without penalty.  Now we have to pray that our work permit is processed quickly.  They said that it could take 2-3 months, so it is possible!  Our Tip Calculator said that he can help walk the permit through the process when I get the file number.  However, I did not get a good feeling in my tummy (of course I do not remember what a good feeling in my belly was anymore these days... I want some Salvatore's pizza!).  I think that that may include "tipping" several other people...

    ***The Neeley's do not condone tipping of government workers.  This is circumstantial and hopefully will not happen again, Lord willing.***

    So hopefully, this will be the last of our blogs about immigration, at least for the next two months.

    On a positive note, Azeda's mom, who works as a council person in her village, moonlights as a tailor.  She was nice enough to make dresses for the girls (less Isabel).  It was a really nice treat and the girls were in their glory putting on silk gowns...

    Sorry, the photo does not show Lizzy's dress very well.  She hid behind the kids!  And for the record, what is a better backdrop to a picture but razor wire?  Nothing!!!

    Update... The malaria was not too bad.  I felt it for about two days.  It felt like I was drunk (dizzy, balance loss, sensitive to light) and achy.  Otherwise, no real big deal.  Praise God!