It was with great apprehension, then, that Mo’ and I FedExed our passports to Tanzania's embassy a few weeks ago, along with our visa applications, passport-ready photos from CVS, and $200 in processing fees. Then, while our passports went on Walkabout, we held our breath, crossed our fingers, and danced like shamans around a horseshoe bedazzled with four-leaf clovers.
Mo’ and I were certain that we had completed our applications correctly, but the new visas were stamped valid from 7/3/2014 to 7/3/2015. That's a problem because we're going to arrive in Tanzania in June.
Ruh-roh!
This all happened on a Friday, of course, so we had to endure a long, fretful weekend waiting for the embassy to reopen. Mo’ called early the following Monday to find out what had happened and what, if anything, we could do about it.
A polite and dutiful embassy rep listened patiently to our story, looked over our application materials, and assured Monica that everything is as it should be. In Tanzania, she explained, as in much of the rest of the world, dates are written Month/Day/Year instead of Day/Month/Year. Our visas, therefore, are valid from March 7, 2014 to March 7, 2015.
We are idiots. Rubes this provincial shouldn’t be allowed out of the county, much less out of the country.
But shhhhhhh! We’re going anyway.