Ok - I know it's been a couple of days but I hope you've all be praying away - actually I know you've all be praying away!!! I know it! I know it! I know it...because we are - as my daughter would say "feenished!!!" But let's take a walk through the last couple of days so you can appreciate the journey...
Wednesday April 1st
We awoke to yet another sunny day - which by the way I hear you are not getting a lot of in West Kelowna these days - sorry about that ;) - had breakfast in the lodge, pulled ourselves together and prepared to head into Mbabane to meet with our social worker Vierah [who by the way is the Queen of all things in Swaziland! We owe her a debt that we will never be able to repay - we could never have done this without her - so blessings on Vierah].
Just before we left Robert - the son of the owners of the Willows where we are staying - came by and asked if Liam could go to school with him? We checked in with Ally his mum and she said that this was fine and that she would watch him for the day - which was a huge blessing as this meant Liam didn't have to wait in cues with us as we were working on birth certificates and passports.
So, Zoe, T and I headed in and met up with Vierah and the other Canadians and started the "process"and what a process it was. We picked up passport paperwork and with Vierah's help filled it out - would never have been able to do it without her as we needed a Swazi sponsor which she happily did for us. Then we moved up stairs into a clautrophobic hallway crowded with close to a hundered people waiting in line for a birth certificate. However, Vierah led us past the line and into an office further down where a lady helped us get our birth certficate forms filled out - it was now 2:30 pm in the afternoon [we started at 10 am]. I learned alot about the culture and the way things work here in Swaziland as every 3 minutes someone else just sort of randomly wandered into the office [even though the door was closed] and asked a question, or chatted, or wondered why we hadn't cued like everyone else - which only lengthened the process. We finished our two one page forms at 3:30 pm and headed down the hall to another office where another lady took the information from our written forms and typed them into a computer program so they could be printed. This was the last step we needed in order to submit our passport applications - which we needed to do by the end of the day so we had a hope of making our fligths that were booked for Thursday evening at 5:30 pm...so things were a little stressful.
Our friend - who was incredibly helpful and sweet - typed in our one page birth certificates [between multiple conversations, phone calls and random journeys out of the office from time to time] and finished up around 4:30 pm - an hour later. We were still feeling hopeful until went to print and discovered that the people who work where the printer is located - which apparently is in another room - were gone for the day and there was no one around who had a key. She called about 58 people to try to get in but could not. We were informed we were done for the day and that we should come back on Thursday morning at 9 am to pick up our birth certificates and begin the process of applying for passports that we needed for a flight the same day!
Now, the big question I had for God at this point in the day was why there was a brand new laser jet printer sitting on the ladies desk who was trying to print for us? A brand new laser jet printer that apparently wasn't hooked up to anything at all...just a big paper weight, staring me in the face, mocking me...as my friend who was with me later said, "It was like it had arms and legs and was dancing on the desk saying , 'Nah nah nah nah boo boo!" Yeah! I just want you to know that I had fantasies about picking up my chair and beating the laser jet printer to pieces and then lighting it on fire!!! Seriously - I had a hate on for that printer!
So we thanked our friend who had gone above and beyond for us and we headed home...sweaty, exhausted and not knowing what Thursday would bring.
Thursday - April 2
After breakfast we made the decision that T would stay home with Liam who wasn't feeling well and I would make the days journey through the halls of the government building on my own - with my 2 year daughter Zoe of course! Woohoo - didn't someone say this was a holiday....HA! Anywho, we weaved our way through the morning traffic on the MR3, had a 30 minute delay at construction as a Matatu [taxi van crammed full of people] ran out of gas on the one lane road and had to be pushed around the barrier so it could glide down the hill to the nearest gas station - and then we finally parked out side the already bustling gov't building at 8:45 am. I met up with the other Canadian couple and headed up to pick up our birth certificates. Our friend was true to her word - God bless her! She not only had certificates ready but had certified copies for us so that we could go right to the passport office! The day was looking up!
We raced down 3 flights of stairs in the dark unlit stairwell that led to the passport office - we were second in line. We entered, explained who we were, that Vierah had called ahead, that we needed passports for a flight today and when could we pick up...and they said, no problem - come back at noon right?! Ahhhhh...no! They looked at us and said, "Impossible! It cannot happen! It will take at least 3 days if not 2 weeks. Now get out!" Hmmmmmm...this isn't going well at all...did I mention Vierah wasn't with us because she was called away on conference? Apparently life is better when Vierah is with you. So, we called our lifelong heroine and after 16 calls she finally called back. She said not to leave, she would make some calls and let us know. It was not 10:30 am.
So, Zoe and I sat on a narrow wooden bench in a dark hallway, with 50 some other people for the next 5.5 hours...not knowing what was going on or how it was going to turn out, or if we were going to make our flights, or if we were ever coming home, or if Jeff was going to be the next lead pastor of Powers Creek...we just sat, and played, and of course went to the bathroom to - as Zoe puts it "Ka ka" about 36 000 times - ok, I am exagerrating a little but we went alot!!!
Meanwhile, Vierah would call and check in and assure us that her people were working on it. We later discovered that her people was actually the deptury Prime Minister - so thank you Vierah and many blessings on the Deputy PM! At 3 pm we were invited back into the office where the passports were sitting on the table! I could hardly speak when I saw them! We finger printed the kids, filled out the rest of the paperwork and there they were - within arms reach - when we were told the only problem was that the office who signs all passports was not in the office today. They were trying to reach her and would let us know when she arrived. Sooooo - we were sent back into the hallway to wait outside a different office as we watched the clock move ever closer to 4 pm and our flights at 5:30 pm out of Mastapha - 35 minutes away...I thought I was going to hurl!
I stayed busy with walks up and down the hall with Zoe who introduced herself to every single office - 23 in total - and when asked where she was going the answer was the same at every door - "I go to Canada" - oh the faith of a child eh?!" At 4:05 pm a lady came hurrying to the door - unlocked her office, apologized profusely and the hurried us in, signed our passoports and we were out the doow at 4:12 pm!!! Praise God!!
Quick aside - we discovered that there had been a death in the family and she had been at a funeral earlier in the day and was delivering family back to the airport. She had left a funeral and family to hurry back to sign our documents! Unbelievable!
As I held the passport in my hand the tears started to flow and as the other couple and Zoe and I hit the parking lot we lost it! We had a massive group hug and then quickly jumped in our seperate vehicles and the race was on to make our flights...there was just one problem - after talking with T we discovered that there had been an error in the booking of our flights and so we actually didn't have flights out which meant that we weren't going to make it to Pretoria for Friday and we weren't going to be able to submit our visas until Monday. The earliest flights we could get would be Saturday...I believe my words to T on the phone were "Shut up!!!!!" But she was telling the truth!
So, I slowed the Opel down from 140 kph, took a deep breath, stopped at the market, bought some bottled water, some soap and a treat for the kids and headed home...sweaty, exhausted, joyful, disappointed and wondering what's next!!!
We decided to make the best of it and enjoy our final day in Swaziland and take the Saturday flight...so we had steak and eggs at Malendela's, watched the sunset, came home, bathed the kids, and fell unconscious at 8:30 pm....that was our Thursday! Again, I am so thankful for all your prayers - I truly felt strengthened throughout the day and I know I couldn't have done it without you!!!!! Please continue to pray for Vierah! I can't wait to introduce her to many of you when she visits West Kelowna in June! She has been amazing! She is our Canadian sister and we would never have been able to do this without her!!! So, woohoo for Vierah!
Which by the way means - we are done!!!
Today our plan is to enjoy the day as family, pack up, change some money and get ready for the flight tomorrow - that's Saturday - at 2:15 pm. Our S.A. travel agent will pick us up in Jo-Burg and drive us to our place in Pretoria. We will settle in on Sunday and then present our papers on Monday morning.
So, please pray that we will be able to get everything in on Monday, that Diane and her team will look upon us with favour and turn the visa around early in the week and that we will be able to make our flights that are booked for this Friday evening!! Well, that's a long one but that's what we've been up too! We love all the comments and we can't wait to see you all! Thanks for joining us on the journery - for T, Liam and Zoe - this is Troy and that's the McKnight Report!!!
