African Time and Bureaucracy

 

After 6 weeks, the link to Hannah’s birthday photos now finally works, for anyone interested!

https://picasaweb.google.com/smegswife/HannahSBirthday#

We’re just back safely from Kigali. No IT number plates for our car yet, but will try again next week. Had a busy couple of days dealing with African bureaucracy – eventually got my replacement Kindle out of customs myself, saving about $100 in customs duties and fees in the process (still cost $20), but in order to get ONE item released from customs the process was (not including my “false steps” where I had to retrace my actions):

Go to DHL office in Kigali , collect customs slip and find customs agent. Get quote on item retrieval by DHL. Refuse to pay $120. Collect paperwork and get it stamped out by DHL customs manager.

Go home. Write and stamp covering letter requesting waiver of duty to airport customs manager. Prepare supporting documents and print them.

Drive to Kigali airport. Find Customs Duty Manager and wait in queue. Explain situation, and have customs invoice annotated to show no duty payable. Queue again to have (empty) duty form completed on computerised system by Duty Officer. Take this form for payment of administration fee to bank nearby. Cross to other end of airport, show documents, and surrender passport in order to get temporary airport staff ID. Cross back to other end to customs warehouse. Show ID and clear security after entering name and details in book to enter warehouse. Find main warehouse office. Wait in queue then obtain bill for warehousing fees. Take this bill and bill for admin fee back to bank. Wait in queue to pay warehousing fee and admin fee. Take receipt back to Duty Officer for stamp of proof of payment. Photocopy 4 of the forms completed so far in triplicate and make 3 separate sets of documents. Sign and date bottom of two other documents. Back to Duty Officer for approval of these documents and to surrender one set. Re-enter warehouse and pass through security again. No sign-in this time. Back to main warehouse office and surrender second set of documents. Wait while they locate item in warehouse. Go to other end of warehouse to second office to have item reconciled with postal record. Bring back completed form to first warehouse office and wait for item to be found in system and tracking number printed. Cross to second warehouse where item actually stored. Attend further warehouse office with tracking number and wait for item to be located on their system. Search through 400 boxes until item found. Take it back to first warehouse office and wait for item to be removed from system. Enter item in books in 2 further warehouse offices and clear security with your item.

Now the last part of this process (the airport part) took 3 hours. That’s amazingly efficient in my book given the complexity involved. Usually members of the public aren’t allowed to clear their own items, and I can see why. It takes a SIX year degree to become a customs clearing agent and be allowed to manage this process. I was only allowed to do it myself because there was no duty on my item. I must commend the customs office though - everyone was incredibly gracious and helpful, especially the customs agents who were forever bumping me up in the queues, introducing me as the doctor from Butare to their colleagues and generally being patient and supportive as I tried to find my way in this Byzantine maze. They loved the fact that I had some Kinyarwanda, and I gave out 3 or 4 of my cards to various agents with family members with abdominal complaints. All in all, once I settled in, I really enjoyed the relationships and time spent in this most bureaucratic of workplaces. I was the recipient of much grace, and I still have 12 pages of paperwork (and nine stamps on it) to remember my afternoon by!

Oh yes, and a replacement Kindle…