African bureaucracy has the stigma of being one of the worst known to humanity. And today I had a go at it myself.In a few days I’m finally heading across the border to Burkina Faso and then on to Benin. And back to Burkina to go to Ivory Coast. Which means I need some visas to go about. And you need to start somewhere collecting them. So I decided that since Burkina is my first stop that’s where my visa journey shall begin.
Driving in a taxi I kept thinking about the number of formulars awaiting for me. And making wild guesses how long it would take them to issue me a multiple entry visa. I was figuring that if I make it out of that place in an hour or two I might call that a success. And celebrations would be in place if they could issue me a visa in two days.
But lo and behold! Only 3 papers to fill in. Added 3 identical looking photos along with just a bit over 30k CFAs and the lady behind the counter instructs me to be back at 15:00. Mind you it was noon which would leave them with only 3 hours to issue me a visa.
Still not quite ready to believe this might actually be true I left the place. And after a nice meal I was itching to be back at 15:00 sharp just to see whether it could possibly be true. I was there at 14:57 and walked straight up to the lady with a smug on my face expecting to be told to wait and wait and wait. But no! Even before I could inflict tons of hours of waiting upon myself I saw it sitting there. My passport on her desk. Still not quite ready to believe it I was expecting that it hadn’t left her desk at all. But she had just smiled at me and handed it over. And there I was standing with my passport in hand and the biggest disbelief ever. And a 3 month multiple entry visa was smiling at me.
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