Saturday, November 11, 2006

Red Tape

The first Big Difference between holiday and work overseas is the huge amount of red tape. Right now we’re very proud we got our ‘idiot-forms’. We’re officially mentally sound (as Hamish would say: Bram’s (m)oral aptitude has been approved of). But that’s just one of many forms, and each form has to be copied and certified three times. Our stamp collection is multiplying like mice!
This whole process is frustrating, amusing, a catch 22 (for instance: you can’t get a local bank account without a residence permit, you can’t get the permit without the account), and flabbergasting all at once. Than again we’re the lucky ones, with okay-looking native documents in five languages, and we’re in Botswana, where the Dutch consulate is fabulous. Imagine being Chinese, or an African in the Netherlands...

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