safari ni hatua

On Tuesday, all of my worst fears came to pass - my neighbor and her son were denied US visas.  That day was easily the low point of my Peace Corps service, and more than that, one of the most thoroughly depressing days of my life.

And it wasn't simply that they were denied, but rather the manner in which it happened.  Ever since I had offered them the trip months ago, we had been doing a lot of work to make the trip happen.  It began with getting their passports, and dealing with corrupt Tanzanian immigration officers along the way.  Once their passports were obtained, we then began the process of applying for their US visas.  This involved filling in more forms, but it also involved getting supplemental information.  I've already written about getting the letter for my neighbor from the headmaster, and we also got a letter from her son's school headmaster, a bank statement for her for a year, the receipts from her house payments, and of course the letter from me.

Once that was done and we had filled in the paperwork, we came to Dar for their interviews.  First we had to get passport pictures taken of them, and then I had to deposit the visa fee ($262, or $131 per person) which is non-refundable.  Then the big day came, and we went for their interviews.

We got to the embassy at 7:30am (I wanted to be a bit early), and we waited until we could pass through security.  Then we went inside to the consular section, and waited in line again to drop off their forms.  There were no problems with their forms, so we simply sat down and started waiting.  I figured people would be called into another room to be interviewed, but there were simply three windows in the room - the first where you drop off your forms, and then two windows for interviews.  After a short while they began calling applicants' names, and finally my neighbor and her son's name were called.

I sat listening nervously as they were asked questions, and after about two minutes my neighbor and her son were done.  She came holding a letter printed on blue paper in her hand, and said simply "wamekataa" (they have refused).  I don't think it quite hit me at first, but I asked to see the letter and I asked her what happened.  She said that they asked her basic questions like what her job is, how long she has been a teacher for, what her salary is, etc.  Then they asked if the kid standing with her was her son, and she said yes.  The follow-up question asked if she would be traveling with her son, and when she said yes, the reply was "huwezi kwenda na mtoto" (you cannot go with a child), she was handed the rejection letter, and that was it.

No explanation as to why she couldn't travel with her son...nothing.  The letter was just a form letter stating that she hadn't met the requirements to be issued a US visa; namely, she didn't show her intent to return to Tanzania after the trip would be over.

Now, I have known these people for two years, and they are my immediate next-door neighbors at school.  Her son is in my house literally every day, and I have also spent a significant amount of time with her as well.  I know these people.  If there was any doubt in my mind that they were intending to run away once we reached the US, I would have never offered them the trip in the first place.  Nor would I have offered them the trip if I didn't wholeheartedly believe that they are good, honest people.

Yet somehow, in the space of two minutes, the consular officer who interviewed them was able to magically see through this amazing snow-job they've done on me, and determine that they aren't honest people.  To me, that's insulting.  I realize that they probably get a ton of visa applications, and that they have limited resources.  But you know what?  The solution isn't having interviews so fast that the officer is doing nothing more than making a guess as to the person's intentions.  So all of the work that we had done over months, and all of the time and money that was spent, was rendered meaningless in the space of two minutes.  Two.  Minutes.  And the best part?  They didn't even look at any of the supplemental information we had brought.

Needless to say, I was dejected and angry at the same time.  If they were denied, so be it - but I wanted to understand why they were rejected.  Neither the reason they gave her in the interview nor the letter she was given adequately explained why exactly they did not show their intent to return to Tanzania.  I knew the decision couldn't be appealed, but I wanted to understand why they were rejected, so I went into the American citizen services booth to see if I could get an answer.

Unfortunately, all I got were non-answers and ignorant remarks about myself.  You see, a while ago I had run my idea to bring these people to the US past the current Peace Corps Country Director, to see what he thought.  I got nothing but positive encouragement from him, and he gave me the names of the two top people at the embassy's consular section.  I e-mailed them to ask some questions, and one of them (the head guy) in his first reply gave me a warning not to appear as the kind of person who can arrange visas for people, as that would lead to a million people knocking on my door.  I said that while I understood his point, that wasn't the case here.  My neighbor and her son didn't come up to me one day saying "Hey we want to go to the US, get us visas!"  Nor was it because I hung a sign on my door saying "Want a US visa? Come here!"  Rather, this was me personally offering two people I care very much about the opportunity to visit my home.  Period.

So as it turns out, the head of consular affairs happened to be working at the US citizen services window that morning.  I explained who I was and what happened, and he started on the same line that he took in his e-mails - I had no part in the visa application process, and that it was completely on my neighbor and her kid to show their intent to return to Tanzania.  I said that's fine, but can I at least know why they were denied?  His answer?  "That's the $64,000 question."

I understand that if they gave people more specific reasons, some people might game the system.  But in my opinion, when someone puts that much time, money, and effort into an application, they damn well deserve some kind of answer.  Yet, we got nothing.  He gave me the same boilerplate responses that were in the form letter she was given.  But the best was yet to come.

Towards the end of the conversation, he said to me "You are doing yourself and the Peace Corps a disservice by making it seem like you can get visas for people."  What?  So apparently, I did something wrong by trying to do something nice for people I care about.  That makes total sense, right?  But the worst part was that he insulted me as a Peace Corps volunteer, saying I'm somehow doing something that goes against what the Peace Corps is about.  Yet the last time I checked, one of the three goals of Peace Corps is "to promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the people served".  Color me stupid, but I would think that bringing someone to the US would certainly go a long way towards helping their understanding of the US.

So I left, though I went into the bathroom and cried for about ten minutes first.  When I came out we left, leaving behind all the hopes and plans I had.  Now all that's left is bitterness and disdain for the way that our government treats people trying to come to the US.

It's funny, there was a time when I was thinking of working for the State Department, but after this experience I am absolutely sure that I want no part of a system where people are systematically treated like garbage.  Illegal immigration or no, the way my neighbor and her son were treated was absolutely unacceptable, and it really hurt me to see it.  And to have some jackass in the embassy question my Peace Corps service was just the icing on the cake.  I guess living in your little American bubble, untouched by the dirty masses of Tanzanians, must be a real harrowing job to make someone so insensitive and uncaring.  I was actually laughing to myself hearing the consular officers calling peoples' names, because they were botching the pronunciations of their names terribly.  I'm guess pretty much none of the embassy staff speak Swahili, because if they had had just a little training I'm sure they wouldn't have screwed up the names so badly.  After my Peace Corps service, I don't think I could ever enjoy a job like that.

So what's next?  Nothing.  It's possible to apply again, but since their application was perfectly filled-out, what would we change?  Nothing.  So what would likely change in the interview?  Nothing.  Just a whole lot of nothing.

I decided to change my plane ticket so that I leave from Dar instead of Kilimanjaro, so I spent the rest of the week here in Dar with my neighbor and her son.  She got to see her oldest daughter (who she hasn't seen in a long time), and I took them around Dar.  We ate at a lot of Western-ish restaurants, which was actually a lot of fun once my neighbor got past the sticker shock.  I figured if I couldn't take them to the US, the least I could do was show them a good time in Dar.  I'm still considering other travel options for next June, but I'm not sure what's going to happen yet.

They left this morning to go back to school, which was sad because my neighbor's son was crying as he was getting on the bus.  And now I'm sitting in the Peace Corps office volunteer lounge, waiting until the evening when I go to the airport.  I'm sure I'll look forward to coming back, but right now I really think I need a break from this country.  The emotional strain the past week has been pretty bad, and it'll be nice to just hide out at home and see friends and family.