Immigration

Immigration Office

So, here’s the story. Before we left Canada, we were under the impression that we could enter Grenada without a visa and only a return ticket that showed that we were leaving within 3 months. I double-checked with the Grenadian High Commission in Ottawa to make sure that I had the facts straight. Of course, we all know that the bureaucratic machine could not possibly work that well. Upon our entry into Grenada we received entry status for 30 days, not quite the 3 months that we had anticipated. Today we rectified the situation with a visit down to the Immigration and Passport Office in St. George’s. After a lot of standing around we got to meet with the officer in charge of visa extensions. We explained our situation and showed him a letter from GRENCODA that stated formally that we are volunteers and that they have need of us for six months. I don’t think that he had any facial muscles because his expression was incredibly flat all the time. Like someone that had accidentally rubbed novocaine onto his face. Anyways, after some more standing around and waiting while the bureaucratic machinery slowly engaged we were told that our visas had been extended until the end of April. I know that many people have much more interesting stories to tell about their experiences with immigration offices around the world but this was my first experience with them and so I decided to share it with all of you.

Also, while we were in St. George’s we checked out the library. With the fact that we are still underutilized at GRENCODA and we can’t play Settlers of Catan all evening, every evening, our household reads a lot of books. There are no bookstores worth mentioning in Gouyave. We looked at one of the supposedly better book stores in St. George’s and it had very little selection and the books were overpriced. There is a library in Gouyave but apparently they can’t lend out books since they don’t have the appropriate software on their computers. I don’t know when they will fix the situation but I won’t hold my breath. The library in St. George’s is quite willing to lend books to foreigners, on the condition that they pay $10EC and get two Grenadian references. We got the appropriate forms today and look forward to getting access to St. George’s Public Library. We looked around it today while we waited for a librarian to show up and give us the forms, it is good-sized and I think that we will find enough to keep us entertained until we leave.

That’s it for now.

Much respect,

Jason