We were due to go out of Thailand to process our volunteer visa. We have a letter from our volunteer visa sponsor TEAA, confident of our US passport, we can take it to the embassy, they’ll give us a one year visa renewable every year. Sounds straightforward & easy, right?
Well, our journey to Savannakhet, Laos, eastern border of Thailand is far from it. The travel agency first of all doesn’t have a system whatsoever, one goes by gut feel which person who you would speak with in a room filled with people, if perchance you get a reliable one, it will only take you a few tries before you finish the one page form.
The owner who has the big adding machine in front gave us a much higher price the day of our departure, probably she was distracted because she was speaking to her manicurist in between her conversation with Richard. This was the start of a very humbling & helpless experience.
They gave us a few minutes when our names were called to get on the 14 seater van which will take us to our 14 hour destination. The ride was rough, though my seat has more legroom, still sleeping seated isn’t the most comfortable. We arrived at the border at 4:00am. One by one all the vans are arriving, I counted 7, we were told to come out of our vans & wait.
But first our driver asked for our passports & documents, approximately 90 of us, both Asian & Caucasians alike, just waited around (sit wherever you can, like steps or railings)in the big parking space, while 5 guys were intensely looking at our passports & documents AGAIN. No one told us what’s happening or what they’re doing.
After roughly an hour of checking our documents, they started out calling out names, my name was called first, Richard’s papers are nowhere to be found, after a few minutes it showed up.
The borders are easy breezy, our guy talk to the officer first then a “shake hand”. Upon entering Savannakhet, Laos, we were all herded to the Thai Embassy where all our documents will be reviewed & processed to get whatever visa we applied for. We were in line at around 8:30am, we didn’t finish till 1pm. This was just the submission of documents.
We came back the next day to pick up our passports. Everyone are in line again, this time it’s a little faster, we only have to wait for about two hours at 2:00 in sunny afternoon.
The whole time I have this heavy feeling, murmuring, complaining… but when I was reminded my purpose of being here…“for we are aliens & strangers in your sight” I started started talking to people. One young guy in his twenties traveled for 3 days straight to get a visa. This is his last chance before his visa expires, after which he has to pay an exorbitant penalty. I’ve spoken with a lot of men & women who do this every two months, because they can only get a “tourist” visa and a couple said this is like a “vacation” for them every two months. I shared with them our story and the love of Jesus Christ, prayerfully they will find their purpose in life too in this strange land to make all of this worth their while.