Botswana-bound?!

The US embassy in Zim and the Zim embassy in DC said I needed a business visa. When I arrived at the airport, the official told me a different story. I got the business visa for 30 days and they told me NUST could go to Town Hall and get it extended. I told Esabel, my host, quite a few weeks ago that we needed to get on this.

My visa expires Aug 2- Sunday. On Thursday NUST got on it. My Fulbright American friend had said business visas could not be extended. To get around this, I could go to Botswana for 2 days and then enter as a tourist. Botswana is just a bus ride away. I am teaching my class on Wed- Aug 5- so I wasn't really looking forward to a vacation in Botswana this coming week.

Thursday the Registrar finally admitted that he needed to take care of the issue and not HR. He had been copied on all correspondence- way before I arrived - but he never responded.

Thursday morn we drove to Immigration in town. He told me about the dire financial straits of the university. They were informed by the Govt that as of August, they must cover 25% of the budget and as of DEC they need to cover 50%- this includes salaries. The govt sets the price of tuition. The Registrar said that tuition would have to be raised. If it is, students will go on strike. If the university cannot raise the funds in August, faculty will go on strike if they are not paid. There is no one to get money from...businesses are closing all the time. A new executive council was formed; he lamented the political appointees that do not contribute to their efforts. He had just returned from a seminar in Nazareth, Israel! NUST does not get many visiting scholars because they are isolated from the rest of the world. The Registrar was quite open about the deplorable political situation. He appeared to be a real professional - once again, he has to deal with a very frustrating situation.

The same immigration official that was at the airport was in the Bulawayo office. He said I needed a Temporary Work Permit, for the bargain price of $500! I paid $30 for my business visa. I felt quite bad that NUST had to pay this money for me, but it was frustrating that the Registrar did not get involved earlier. He took the forms and we returned to NUST to get the necessary documents and the cash. At 3 pm we returned to the immigration office. Despite the fact that there were 3+ clerks there, we had to wait for our official to return from the airport. Then he said we didn't have everything, but then he admitted that he had told us different information in the morning, so once he saw the $500, he got his stamp working. $5 was requested from me to DHL the packet to Harare on Friday. The plan is that Monday I can show up and he will stamp my passport with an extension.

The US Embassy said that their intern did not renew her visa in time and she went to jail for 5 hours before they got her out. Hopefully everything will go smoothly on Monday. I return on a flight from Vic Falls on Sunday...hopefully all will go smoothly. Looks like I'll visit Botswana another day.