Visa Purgatory

I was needing a bit of time off to recover from the medication side effects and in quite the unexpected twist of events I may have much more time off than I hoped for. Before I came here Dr Johnson, who has been in Zambia for 15 years and knows logistics here well, checked with multiple official-type people about me visiting. All parties assured him I only needed a tourist visa. He has had many visiting students and residents in the last few years also on tourist visas without problems. Yesterday we got a message from the organization that coordinated this
trip that the state department had issued a new alert that all volunteers must be on a work visa rather than a tourist visa. Apparently some Americans volunteers have recently faced huge fines or even jail time for having the wrong visa. (It is unknown what exactly their circumstances were, politics here can be complicated and perhaps they were up to something else suspicious too). Dr Johnson thought this seemed strange since tourist visas have always been well accepted. Initially we thought I could probably just get approval since he knows many officials in town or say that I am visiting him rather than an official volunteer but he went to the immigration officials who confirmed I cannot be in the hospital any longer without a work visa. Apparently getting a work visa requires applying from your home country at least 6 weeks before entering the country. Dr Johnson is driving to the capital today to talk to the ministry of health and immigration to see what, if anything, can be done. I'm going to see what happens in Lusaka before panicking or scrambling to find a plan B. So here I am a bit in limbo now as to the plans. Sara, my best friend, is due to come here April 8 so we can go on safari. I'm already getting bored sitting around the lodge while under the weather and definitely do not see staying in Choma not working until April as an option. I've thought about emailing everyone I know to see what else I can figure out work wise but that won't make the
visa issue go away, so other projects in Zambia aren't really an option. If it was just a fine at stake I would maybe play dumb about the issue but I'm not really dying to see the inside of a Zambian
jail.

So we'll see. I'm not sure if its fortunate or unfortunate timing that this is catching me at the phase of the up and down cycle where I'm not loving things so much. I feel sick, hate the food here so am alternating between nauseated and starving. There is a small part of
me that is so ready to hop on the next plane home but the bigger part of me knows
I'll figure out a plan B to stay. I don't want to feel like I wimped out if there is an opportunity to stay. I'll definitely go travel for a bit one way or another but as far as work that will be the bigger
challenge to sort out. I'm just keeping an open mind to all the possibilities. Either I'll stay and make the best of it or perhaps find another great opportunity. And at the end of it all, if it
wasn't meant to be I'll putz around a bit, see some animals and come home having had a bit shorter but great experience.

Stay tuned...