Visas Las Cairos (part 1)

When I was in Canada got my visitor's visa from the Egyptian embassy.....I should have sensed something was up. I called the consulate in Toronto
inquiring about a visa....and the guy manning the desk there did not want to have anything to do with me....I mean nothing.
So I just hung up and called the Egyptian embassy in Montreal...and got a nice sounding middle aged Egyptian woman who was way more sympathetic to my needs...
She told me what to do....print off an application form from the internet.... fill it out...and send it to her in Montreal...with a couple of passport photos and and 27 bucks in a money order...(the bank charges you 7 dollars for a money order...pricks).
So I took a whole day out from my busy schedule and got all of that stuff together...and when I got home I phoned the woman...and told her this is what I got...is that all I need? She said yes....I said I'm probably going to be travelling in and out of her country several times when I'm there...she said "oh...for that you need a multi-entry visa....that is and extra five dollars". I said look.... every time I go to the bank for a money order it costs me a lot of money....she said ``that`s okay just slip an extra five dollar bill in the envelope``. Oh.. I see... okay...
Suffice it to say....I got my visa in about two and half weeks....life is good.

However the visa only lasts for three months...and I’m going to be here for four....the woman says that’s no problem you can get it extended when you’re over there...just go to the Interior Ministry...it’s easy..I smelled a rat.

Interior ministry building Tahrir Square Cairo
Fast forward now....I`ve been in Egypt for a couple of months...I just got back from a little run to Cyprus....and thought I should get the visa extention process moving forward. .

 Luckily for me....I have a friend who I used to work with years ago at CTV who lives in Cairo. (see previous blog)
Her husband is a major in the Canadian air force....and he`s in charge of some kind of airbase out in the Sinai.
That`s along way away....so he stays out there and she keeps an apartment for them in Cairo. She e-mailed me and said that she and her 20 year old son Walker.....were going to the Interior Ministry in a couple of days to get their visa`s renewed...and she had some instructions from a friend about how to do it..... would I like to come along.....I responded.....Oh yes... please for sure.

Dana is spiritual,smart, resourceful and a hardy traveller....she`s good to have on your side.

So we made plans to meet about 9 am in Tahrir Square.....yes Tahrir Square. Where most of the rioting is.

 The metro train drops you off there...at Sadat station...and the Interior Ministry is a two minute walk away. So I had to get out of my nice warm bed at 7 am to catch the metro....not far from the apartment. It`s winter here...and it gets nice and cool when the sun goes down....so it was very cool outside and unbelievably it had RAINED!!!!

It rains about an inch a year in Cairo...and we got about a quarter inch of that overnite....so it was wet AND cold.

Onto the Metro train with thousands of other Guys...(women have separate cars) it`s a twenty five minute ride...in a crowded metro car stinking...fetid..coughing,, sneazing.....not my way to start the day. I get there and the square still has protestors hanging about ...but most have gone home..so at least I`m not taking my life in my hands to get this done. Dana tracks me down...and she's got about eight young people in tow....they're  volunteering here from many different countries and come in under the care and nurturing of Dana`s church .

They also have to get visa extended...poor bastards!  She`s happy...smiling....and says  "àre ya ready``.  Off we go.  Across the square through the bedraggled tent area by all the sidewalk vendors setting up for the day.

The Interior Ministry buidling is early seventies in construction....never been painted or maintained and is a big...dark ..forbidding building. The security guard asks to check your bag when you go through the portico.....

From the sunlight into......darkness...and mayhem. It`s like a set from the movie made about George Orwells novel `1984`` 

There are many hundreds of people running and milling about trying to figure out what they`re doing and where they`re supposed go.

But ....Dana thank Providence....knows where to go ...`follow me``! Up a round sweeping circular stair case packed with people going up and down....more security...an electronic detector for bags...and a body scanner  ....when you walk though the scanner all kinds of bells and whistles go off.....but nobody cares....the security guys just sit there talking and drinking tea...

I picked up my bag......down a long corridor... more people..... some of them are workers....scurrying purposefully along the corridor with a huge stack of forms in their arms going somewhere I guess...to do something I suppose....Allah knows what.

 Dana marches us to the end of a hall with a wall on one side and glass wickets with offices on the other side.....the glass wickets are where we`ll do our business..... In the offices behind the wickets.....chaos..... abosolute and utter .There are many many middle aged Egyptian women working back there....they do the grunt work....there are quite a number of men too...not nearly as many...they`re supervising.

There are stacks and stacks and stacks and bloody stacks of forms in manilla folders there....some have been there for years....decades perhaps....on desks..... piled in cupboards ...on the floor...folders... many thousands of them. I saw what the women were trying to do and it became obvious ...they have NO computers...none....I find out later there are none in the whole building...there are no word processors either...everything is written out in long hand.....in the midst of it all you have boys with arms full of these manilla folders.... running back and forth between offices.....the woman take the folders and process them....
Get the idea about how things operate here?.

We come to the end of the hall..Dana is all over it...she says you pick up your paperwork at window 38....then you fill out the forms.....then you have to go to window 43.....pay 13 Egyptian pounds and pickup some official looking government stamps then take it all back to widnow 38 for the women to process ...then come back tomorrow to window 40 with your passport and pick it up.

Okay...if that`s what you gotta do...then that`s what you gotta do...I go to window 38 and are confronted by two grumpy middle aged women who are a obviously overwhelmed with their work and their life and  are barely civil.... but I do get my forms and quickly fill it all out....get my my stamps (the kid at the stamp counter asked for bakshessh...a bribe) and triumphantly.....I'm back in front of the grumpy old women in record time.

I'm thinking...man I've got this nailed....oh but not so fast....shuffle shuffle shuffle....the grumpiest of the old grumpy women says.... "you must have a passport photo"..I say "it's right in there with my stamps and everything else"..shuffle shuffle....she says "you must have a photo copy of your passport" ..shit I thought ....no one told me about that....Okay I say "where can I get that done".....she says "downstairs"  ..."where downstairs".."just downstairs".

Down along the hallway of death I go....run into Dana..she says where are you going?....I say I have a problem...she says well of course you do....I say I need a photo copy of my passport....bless her heart she knows where to go. Down the staircase around to the right.....and there is a very small room with a battered old photo copying machine...and three developmentally handicapped young men sitting around it......I thought oh my God what next????
One of them flings out an arm and points around the corner....I go around the corner...and my heart sank....there are about twenty guys with all kinds of documents crowded against a counter of a tiny little room with two young girls in it...in a frenzy making photo copies.

Now things here would go so much better....if people just stood in line waiting their turn...but for better or worse Egyptians have never developed that orderly habit....so what you have is a mass of guys pushing and shoving...trying to get their documents into the hands of one of these girls. So I get right in there and because I'm a little taller I'm able to reach over the heads of about four guys in front of me....a little hand comes up and takes my passport....30 seconds later the hand comes back with my passport....and in the same motion I give her a one pound coin....and I have my photo copy...Back up the stair case through security down the hallway of death...Dana standing in her own line sees me and yells good luck!!

Back in front of the harridans at wicket 38.....they're not pleased to see me back so fast....I say here's my photocopy.....shuffle shuffle shuffle...she says you also need a photocopy of your visa!!!!

 What the F-----!!!!

Why didn't you tell me this the first time I went down there...she says "I’m telling you now" I say "there's thirty guys waiting to get photocopies" ..."she says you can wait too". Back.....back.....BACK down the hallway of death I go past Dana and Walker in their line...."what now" she says....I say another problem....I need another photo copy...she says of course you do..have fun.

Down the staircase around the corner...by this time I've got it down....reach over everyone get my photo copy...and back up ....window 38...now they're really not happy with me. Here's my stuff....shuffle shuffle shuffle....where's your passport photo...it's in there....shuffle shuffle shuffle...there it is... where's your stamps....they're in there....shuffle shuffle shuffle...there they are.....

She  grudgingly  says "okay" come back tomorrow morning with your passport for your visa extention....

I'm in the mix!!!!

I go back down the hallway of death...and it has become just that....in my time away hundreds have people have come into the corridors of this beaurocratic mayhem..there is jostling and pushing and shoving everyone trying to get to the wickets where harried women are shuffling papers and passports and documents.....

Heated arguing breaks out several wickets down...it picks up into a crescendo of men yelling...then stops...the tension is thick in the air.

Dana and Walker  have done their business... I've done mine...she says let's get out of here..

Next..picking up my visa

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