Bureaucracy and Generosity

The most frustrating part of preparing for this South Africa trip and the subsequent semester of school for the girls has been getting the student visas for the girls to return home with us.  Communication across 7000 miles and vastly different cultures has contributed significantly to this frustration (luckily we all speak English of one form or another), but dealing with the bureaucracy of immigration has been my energy abyss.

For eight weeks now, Nonswakazi or Boy have been going to the American Consulate in Cape Town with a variety of documentation, including I-20 forms from the schools (the ones that specify the terms of the student visa).  Not until yesterday did anyone at the consulate more than glance at the pile of documentation.

It took two phone calls with the consulate in the last three weeks (plus numerous other attempts when the consulate had its phones disconnected) and tons of legwork and fretting before they finally reviewed the documentation.

Guess what?  There were problems.  One of the I-20s was incompletely filled out (a responsibility of the school, but easily given to errors), and they needed letters of intent from each of the schools here.  Add to that that we’ve been trying to get the I-20s reviewed since early November, and that yesterday was the last day the schools were open until after the Christmas holiday, and that we leave for South Africa on Christmas morning.  I don’t want to lay much blame anywhere, but I’ve been very suspicious of an undercurrent of racism, distrust, and  disingenuousness with our INS brethren in Cape Town.

Aargh!

Fortunately, we are blessed by a large network of friends and colleagues with lots and lots of connections into the schools and even in South Africa.  In the last 20 hours, many people have interrupted their holiday preparation and vacations to help us resolve the visa issue.  By the time we go to South Africa, we will have all the documentation in our hands that the consulate has asked for (at least from the American side of the ocean, and there may still yet be hassles).

I’d like to extend my warmest thanks to those of you who helped in the preceding weeks, and especially in the last day.  You’ve made this last push possible.

Terry Carney, admissions and marketing director for Magnificat high school.  Ann Miller, principal of St. Raphael middle school.  Sr. Ardith Blake of Humility of Mary.  Michael Voinovich (and his wife, Elaine), director of Government Programs from the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, and Angie Pavlock, also at the diocese.  Sr. Rose Bator, director of Common Ground.  Lavinia in Bishop Tutu’s office.  Naomi Tutu for Lavinia’s phone number (and helping start this whole thing with Rose).  Also, any number of others who helped pass information and scare up phone numbers. And most of all, Sr. Cheryl Rose, H.M., for sheparding the whole process and helping me see it through.

We’ll all be rewarded when we see that Thania and Evelyn have made it to our home here in Cleveland.  Thank you, and let’s hope and pray the consulate doesn’t put up some more hurdles.