This week started with a bang Tuesday morning at 6:45. The elders who were crossing the border into South Africa called. One of the elders had over stayed his stated time in country. Now, it's legal to stay in country for 90 days, HOWEVER, when he came in country, he stated that he would be here 3 days. So, he had overstayed by 87 days. The zone leaders asked me to bring 1000 pula to pay his fine. I had just gotten out of the shower when I had received the call so I quickly dressed and was on my way to the border. Normally the border is 30 minutes away from our flat. However, 7:00 am in Botswana is rush hour traffic and it took me an hour to get to the border. I told the zone leaders to head to Jo Burg and I would take care of the missionary with the fine. They were already an hour and a half late and they had the luggage trailer for all the missionaries moving on transfer. There were four cars involved in the transfer with four Elders in each car. Three cars moved on and the one stayed with me. Normally the Elders leave at 6:00 am and arrive in Jo Burg by noon then the same vehicles refuel and two of the four cars with four Elders each leave at approximately 2:00 pm and return to Botswana arriving at the Border at approximately 8:00 pm if everything goes well, which makes a long day for those elders. The third and fourth cars stayed an extra day for a special zone leaders meeting with President Omer and the A P s. At the border I was told that the missionary and I would have to travel 15 K's back to a police station in Tokwein to pay the fine of 1000 pula. After arriving at the police station we were asked to fill out some paperwork. While the Elder was doing this I was escorted by a young female police officer to the other side of the building to pay the fine and get a receipt for the border. While we were walking she asked me if I had the pula for the fine. I told her that I had 1000 pula and handed it to her. She told me that I would only need 800 pula for the fine and that she was going to keep 200 pula (about $25) for lunch for her and her friends. I told her that the fine was for 1000 pula and I had given her 1000 pula and what ever she did with it was up to her. When we arrived at the cashier she proceeded to give him the 800 pula and told him the fine was for 800 pula. He wrote out a receipt for 800 pula. On the way back I told the missionaries what had happened and we were all concerned about what was going to happen at the border. At the border we handed the receipt to the border officer. He mentioned that the fine was for 1000 pula and the receipt was for 800. I told him that I had offered 1000 pula to the police but was told the fine would only be for 800. He excepted my explanation and allowed the Elders to cross the border. However, I did not mention that the young police officer had kept 200 pula for her and her friends lunch.
That night I received a call from the border from the elders who where in the two cars returning. Everything had gone well at the border and they were just calling to let me know they were in Botswana. However, the next day I received a call at about 1:00 pm from one of the zone leaders in one of the cars returning. One of the zone leaders that had received residency previously in Botswana had been in South Africa since last July. He was told that his residency had expired because he had been out of the country for over six months and that he would have to go to the immigration office by 2:00 pm and reapply. When I received his call I was waiting for Elder Watson to bring me our extra set of car keys because I had locked my keys in the trunk at a bank. I told them that I would meet them at the immigration office. We were told at immigration that although the elder had a residency sticker in his passport it was invalid because he had been out of the country for over six months. I asked them if he was illegal at that time and they said no because he had residency sticker in his passport and if he reapplied he would be okay. We might have had further problems that day if the other car with the AP's and the other zone leaders had come thru the border with them. However, they went thru a different more remote border post that night because they had to retrieve one of the zone leaders passports that had gone to another area by mistake. One of the zone leaders in this car had also been out of the country over six months. We found out the next day that two other elders had been out of the country over six months but had crossed the border in the night time and had not been detained. We have other issues at immigration but I have already gone on to long so I won't discuss them at this time.
We now have two AP's and a pair of office elders living in the Rand's (our CES couple that went home) old home. They are here to help us get ready for our new mission president and help train him. We took them over to our new mission office on Friday to show them the office that they would be working in and found some friends just outside of our fence in the back. Baboons!!!!!
So exciting story... How are you there in far Africa? You are the best! Do you plan to change your Mission place?
ReplyDeleteLove, Irina and Russian Family.
Reminds me of something Grandpa Gubler used to always say to me when I was leaving their house, "See yah later alligator, not so so yah big baboon!" And he always had the biggest grin on his face when he said it too....Good times :)
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