Back to Blogging! First off - the saga of my passport....

I just realized that I have not posted at all during October - oops! It's been a busy month travelling in and around Asia, which almost did not happen due to some passport issues.

For those of you who already know the passport saga, please feel free to skip to the next posting ;-) But for those of you who have not heard the saga, please read on...

I realized once I arrived in Timor-Leste in August that my Canadian passport was almost full, but I was not too worried since I just thought I would get it replaced when I went to Canada for Christmas. Then I got invited to a work meeting in Thailand (and to get to Thailand from TL you need to go through Singapore or Bali, Indonesia). And then I got invited to go on a learning visit to Bangladesh, to see Plan's programs and operations in that country, to serve as input and inspiration for Plan's programs and operations in Timor-Leste. So all of a sudden I needed to have enough pages to go to four countries and also get back into my own 'new' country :-)

First problem - there is no Canadian Embassy in Tim0r-Leste. So, like a good girl, I went to the Australian Embassy (as recommended by the Canadian Embassy in Jakarta) and filled out a bunch of forms and paid a bunch of money to apply for a passport replacement. I was told by the Embassy staff that it would take 15 business days maximum, as the passport was just going to Jakarta and the replacement would be returned before I needed to travel at the end of September.

Second problem - naively, I believed that the Canadian Embassy in Jakarta issues replacement Canadian passports. It does not. Oh, they process the paperwork and accept the fees (of course!) but the actual passport gets printed in Canada (*Mississauga, in case anyone is interested). And that is once the application gets to the office in Jakarta....

Third problem - instead of the Australian Embassy sending my passport and application forms directly to the Canadian Embassy in Jakarta, somehow they got mixed in with the diplomatic mail going to Canberra. Australia. Which is NOT Jakarta. So apparently my passport took a little trip to Aussie and hung out there for about 2 weeks before being sent to Jakarta.

Fourth problem - once my passport/application arrived in the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, it turned out to be the same time as the celebration of the end of Ramadan (Muslim holiday). So then there was a fuss about who would take it to the Canadian Embassy for processing and when, since everyone was on vacation. More delay. At this point, I was curious and innocently asked the Australian Embassy in Timor-Leste - 'oh, what day shall I come and pick up my replacement passport' - and the response was 'oh, the application just arrived in Jakarta today - and oh, um, yah, well, it actually takes about 25 days to process, since the replacement passport comes from this place called Mississauga'. Now for those of you who know me well, you can only imagine what my response was to that 'news'....suffice it to say that I've made 'friends' with both the Australian consul in Timor-Leste and the Canadian consul in Jakarta, who managed to arrange for an emergency passport to get printed for me in Jakarta....and I thought all was well. But again, I was naive....

Fifth problem - my temporary passport needed to get from Jakarta to Timor-Leste within 4 days. Shouldn't be an issue, I thought, that should be more than enough time for good ol' DHL to courier it - how wrong I was! DHL informed me they had a back log (also due to the holidays at the end of Ramadan celebrations....) and it would take them at least 7-10 business days to get my passport from J to TL! Well that left me in quite a quandry to say the least. I could not leave the country to go get my passport and it could not get to me :-( but thankfully one of my staff members in TL reminded me that Plan has an office in Jakarta and we have a travel agent that has connections in Jakarta too - so my passport was picked up at the Canadian Embassy in Jakarta and 'handed off'' through a random chain of people in Jakarta, Bali and delivered to Timor-Leste - the evening before I flew the next day. Just in time!

Six problem - after the panic to get my temporary passport, I realized it looked a bit dodgy and only had 4 pages in it! So I spent the next 3 weeks travelling in and out of 5 countries, carefully explaining / miming / playing charades - and in one case, flirting! - with various Immigration staff trying to get them to understand 1> that the passport was a valid travel document and 2> that I needed them to stamp it in a very specific place as there was limited space. I am sure some if not all of the Immigration staff thought I was some sort of crazy control freak :-)

Luckily, I was able to complete my travels and get back into Timor-Leste about 2 weeks ago, then surrender my full temporary passport so that I could be sent my newly-printed replacement passport which I received this week....

Hallelujah I am a real Canadian again!

(sorry folks, no photos associated with this posting....but read on!)