February 3-4 - Getting In*

Two Harvard grads with independent funding in Jamaica to do technology education work in conjunction with the gov't ministries of technology and education. Getting a visa should be no problem, but as one might guess, it is not so easy. Before leaving Cambridge I spoke with a representative of teh Jamaican embassy in the U.S. I was told that because we weren't being paid by anyone in Jamaica, we did not need a work permit. However, we would need an extension of our visas because tourists are only allowed in for 6 months. Unfortunately, I was told, we could not apply for the extension until we got to Jamaica.Waiting in line at immigration at the airport I hoped that they might just let us slip by for 7 months but was not surprised when they landed us for 2 weeks and told us to visit the immigration office to request an extension.

Yesterday we drafted a letter for Camella Rhone, the Director General of the Ministry of Technology explaining what we were doing in Jamaica and that we were not being funded by the minstry or other local sources. We had the letter addressed "To whom it may concern." We travelled to the Ministry of Technology to get her signature. From there, we took a taxi across town to the Immigration Office at the Ministry of National Security. There we were seated in a Catch-22-like (me)/Kafkaesque (wayne) waiting room and given a number. We watched as immigration workers did non-descript work at their desks while people waited and waited. We were called to speak to Ms. Simon, to whom we handed our government issue envelope and letter from the D.G. of the Ministry of Technology. Again we hoped that this might get us through, but we felt the interminable illogic of bureaucracy looming. "No," Ms. Simon told us, "I can't accept this letter." It turned out, she explained that as long as were providing any kind of service, volunteer or not, we would have to have a work permit. For that, we must go to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security to apply. When we had applied and obtained proof of our application, we could return to the Ministry of National Security to get a temporary extension of our visas pending the decision on our work permits. She recommended we seek out Ms. J. Archer at the Ministry of Labor.

We got another taxi to take us all the way downtown to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, letters still in hand. In a similarly unpromising environment, we found a plexiglass window behind which a woman who was clearly not Ms. J. Archer sat. Wayne began to explain our situation. She interrupted. Wayne responded and continued. She interrupted again. After a bit, and seeing that she was in no mind to let us through to Ms. J. Archer, I pushed our government envelope through the window. This was something she could understand. "Why hadn't we said just said so in the first place?" But as she looked at the letter, her momentary sympathetic attitude disappeared. "But this letter is addressed to the Office of Immigration, to whom it may concern. It should be addressed to the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. Plus, it does not say that you are U.S. citizens." And so we went home to draft another copy of the letter to take to the Ministry of Technology this morning. We emailed it to Camella Rhone and her secretary with a somewhat desperate email explaining the travails of the day and asking that she help somehow.

By this morning, wayne was no longer sure it was worth trying. They wouldn't come to find us if we didn't leave by Friday. There would be no trouble until we left the country, and once we were leaving, the threat of deportation wouldn't be so bad. I was not so sure. If we overstayed our visa this time, they might never let us come back. At 9:30 we called Mrs. Rhone's office only to find that the Ministry of Technology email system was down and our email had never arrived. We travelled to the Ministry of Technology with a floppy disk and waited for several hours while Mrs. Rhone's secretary called the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and spoke with Ms. J. Archer about the proper contents of the letter.

Finally, armed with a copy of the letter for the Ministry of Labour and an additional copy to bring to the Office of Immigration, we headed downtown again. We found the office deserted. It was 1pm and everyone was at lunch. We sat down to wait. Others came to sit as well. I managed to get the attention of a young woman who came back from lunch long enough to tell her that we were there from the Ministry of Technology and Ms. J. Archer was expecting us. She looked dubious (as well she might, because this was not exactly true...) but stayed long enough to take our new and improved letter and apparently brought it to Ms. Archer's office. She returned for more information. She went back to Ms. Archer. She returned again to tell us that the work permit application would be processed and they would inform Mrs. Rhone of the outcome. I pushed forward the second copy of the letter and asked for a stamp saying that the application had been submitted, which is what Ms. Simon of the Immigration Office has required of us. "No such thing" said the young woman, but she took the letter to the mysterious Ms. J. Archer again. When she returned, she picked up a stamp sitting right on the desk, searched and searched for a stamp pad, but finding none, stamped it with whatever ink was left on it.

Almost triumphant, we headed back uptown again to the Ministry of National Security with our stamped letter in hand. Back in the terrible waiting area we sat and read and watched two very cheerful Chinese girls play in their frilly dresses and much too big shoes. We were called to see Ms. Simon. I said, "Here is the stamped letter showing that we submitted our application for work permits." She read the letter. "Who is Mrs. Rhone?" she asked, though it was written the letter. We explained that she was the Director General of the Ministry of Technology. She looked skeptical but took our passports and plane tickets. "Sit and wait," she said. We read more. We argued about whether the postmodernist book "Mimesis and Alterity" that wayne was reading was snooty and used too many big words to really be useful. We watched the Chinese girls, stuck with their mothers in the same waiting game. At 3:45 we were called to another cubicle where Ms. Simon was consulting with another immigration officer. "What is the name of the ministry?" We answered, "Ministry of Commerce, Technology and Science, or Ministry of Commerce, Science and Technology." I added (truthfully), "I'm not sure, they keep changing the name." A good move. She smiled and agreed. We were sent back to wait again. A little after 4 we were called to see yet another officer. He had a long page of notes on us, but also had two stamped passports with visas extended until March 24, 2003 (pending work permit application approval). He asked our address and contact info and finally let us go. Success! We started off to the phone office for the second time to pay a deposit so we could schedule a phone installation (another similarly illogical and frustrating bureacratic process) but remembered the office closed at 4pm. It would have to wait until tomorrow and would surely take all day.

*A little note on my blogging: I seem to be writing quite a few negative sorts of blogs about our experiences. It is not because I am not having a good time or because I don't like it here. I like it very much, even the frustrating aspects. In considering why I have written more about the negative than the positive, I conclude that it is because I find that when I write praise, it comes out sounding cheesy and overly romantic. It seems to me that one needs to be a better writer to artfully express the beauty in something than to detail its shortcomings.