Mission to the Americas

Last week, we had an experience that can only demonstrate the confusion of trying to live in a different country.

Background:

As part of our ministry, I (Chris) needed to be in Tampa FL to teach at a pastors conference.  I´d return on Wednesday night in order to leave with the family on Thursday to go to do some mission work in Venezuela.  We then were to return from Venezuela as a family on Monday Oct 6.

So I am in one country, Brenda and the family are in the other.

A surprise announcement.

We receive word that a yellow fever vacine will be mandatory for travellers entering the country of panama, effective October 1.  You can´t simply get a vacine and go, you have to have the vacine 10 days before travel, yet we had been given only a 3 day notice.

Imagine the stress with all the questions raised:  Could we travel, could we get to Venezuela, could we get back from Venezuela?

The airlines were busy notifying their customers, but not everyone could be reached.  Travellers were potentially stranded whether by air or by sea, or by land.  The press reports the new travel requirment and it creates a rush on the vaccine (and the one distribution point).  Airlines were threating to not allow people to board if they didn´t have their vaccination card.

In tampa, I find someone who will take me to the health department to get my shot, on the hope that I´d be back in time for my 2:00pm pleanary session.  I missed attending the morning session as I was getting my shot.  $85 later, I had my yellow vaccine card, but under the 10 days.  Thankfully, I didn´t have any side effects.

In Panama, Brenda took the kids to the local clinic, the one distribution point for the country. (Not county, the country).  With the sudden public awareness that it was required (poor government communication), the poor little office was swamped, overwhelmed, and even ran out of vaccine.

The second day, 4 to 5 hours of waiting, they got their shots, but not the card, because they needed a panama ID for my children.  Anecdotal evidence from others who have written on blogs mention things like bribes to get priority numbers, 6 people to do the job of one, and in general, all around misery because of the confusion, onslaught of demand, and changing rules.  The little office was overwhelmed with an onslaught of people, all concerned, confused, and tense.

The third day, Brenda made that trip for the third time to retreive the immunization cards.  That is when we discover that their panama passports are not where they are supposed to be.

It took them about 15 hours, 3 trips, to complete that process.  The exhaustion from inefficient government processes, poor transporation infrastructure, and the stress of not knowing if we´d be able to get out of the country all added up to alot of stress.

That afternoon, Panama extended a delay in the enforcement until November 1, so we could at least travel.

The missing passports

Wednesday night, I get back to Panama.

We can´t find our panama passports to leave the country.  Our US passports didn´t have entry stamps and thus could have suggested that we were way beyond the 90 day limit as tourists.  We looked and looked and looked.

Would my family be allowed to leave the country?  What would happen at immigration when we couldn´t show the entry stamp in the Panama passport?  If we had to pay a fine, would my family be able to re-enter or get banned?  These questions in our brains were unsettling to say the least.  We went to bed exhausted from the stress and our eyes were no longer focusing we were so tired.

Thursday morning, 5 hours prior to departure, we found them in a hidden pouch in a luggage.

All we could do was cry.  In gratitude.  Out of stress.  Cathartic.

¨We could relax¨doesn´t carry the full emotional import of what those words mean to us.

We made it to the airport, got on the plane, and 14 hours later arrived in our destination.  We had arrived.  Shot with a fever vaccine, with our appropriate passports, and even with some bolivars in our pocket.