Hasta La Visas

Preparing for Bolivia has been an adventure, at least on the administrative end! Here is the story of what it took to get the team to Bolivia:

In the past, when Parkside has sent teams to work with Kep and Debbie James in Bolivia, we have been able to purchase visas upon arrival in La Paz. It’s a process we understood and knew what was required. A month after we formed the high school team, Kep informed us the process had changed and we were now required to get Visas before the team leaves.

For our 10 students and 3 leaders, this meant now each had to get:

·       A Passport

·       A Passport picture

·       A yellow fever vaccination (which used to be optional but now required)

·       Proof of Economic Solvency (a bank statement to show they could provide for themselves while in the country)

·       A letter of invitation from Kep saying he had invited us to visit him

·       A copy of the flight itinerary

·       A sworn statement of application for the Consulate

·       Money order for the cost of the Visa

·       A self-addressed stamped envelope for everything to be returned in

Coordinating all that paperwork for 13 people was crazy! The sworn statement of application asked questions we weren’t quite clear on and there was confusion as to what Visa we had to apply for (tourist visa? humanitarian visa? special purpose visa?). After the students had filled out the paper application twice due to misinformation, the consulate sent all our stuff straight back because we hadn’t filled out the online application first.

With two weeks to go until the trip, all the students came back into the office to file the online application so we could mail everything back to the Consulate. We sent the team’s stuff back with a 10 day window to spare.

There was another snag though – the first time around, one of the student’s stuff was mailed separately and slightly later than the rest. He had yet to receive his packet back. After multiple contacts with the United States Post Office and the Bolivian Consulate, we declared his package missing. No one had record of it. Disappointed, he accepted the news that it was likely he wouldn’t go on the trip. But on Saturday, three days after the team’s stuff had been mailed back to the Consulate, his package arrived at his house! We quickly got everything together to send it back to the Consulate and it went back out the same day.

I had tracking tickets for the return envelopes and daily checked to see if they had been mailed yet. Days went by with no news. On Thursday, I called the Consulate for any update on our applications. Dealing with the Consulate throughout this whole process has been interesting – no matter when I called, they were receiving a “high volume of calls.” After 10 minutes of the English hold message, it would begin speaking to me in Spanish. After 5 minutes of that, I’d be sent either to a Spanish speaker who would disconnect me when I asked for an English speaker, or I’d have the option to leave a voicemail which was never returned. Thursday afternoon we asked Eric Bean, a fluent Spanish speaker, to call the Consulate for us. He was also unsuccessful in getting through. Things were looking grim. The packages had to be put in the mail by Friday to reach us in time for the team’s departure on Monday.

At 5:30pm on Thursday evening, Jeff Mills proposed the idea of flying Eric Bean out to Washington DC to personally speak with the Consulate. On Friday morning, Eric got on a plane, flew to DC, and was at the Consulate when it opened at 9:00am. They easily handed over 12 out of the 13 packets which included the passports and visas. He was met with kickback when he asked about the last student whose materials had been mailed separately, but after some persistence, Eric walked out of the Consulate with 13 passports and visas in hand.

I confess I had my doubts that we’d be putting all 10 students and 3 leaders on a plane headed toward Bolivia on Monday evening. But God is good and gracious and worked things through in His own way to  allow this team the opportunity. With a start like this, this trip should be incredible!

- Rachel