I’m sorry. I just can’t do it. I don’t feel that it is right. I cannot do
with a clear conscience. Thank you for
the help and work on my behalf in the past but it will not continue.
Friday the 13th of January was a long day that
started with a 2am bus ride to Maxixe to update my passport. A few months earlier I had trusted my
passport to- let’s just call him Pete with hopes of getting a longer, 6 month
visa. This visit would give me another
30 days; but then next time, if all the paper work (like a new police clearance
from the States and other Mozambican stuff) was in order I could get the
coveted 6 month visa. Just think of it, going
6 full months without worrying about getting your passport stamped or leaving
the country. Its one of those things you
never think about in your home country, but here it’s a constant stressor/annoyance/
money vacuum/necessary evil. Living here
illegally even seems appealing sometimes…but things like the Holy Spirit and
the granddaddy of all fines when I’d try to leave the country deter me.
Pete works for a
lodge and he frequents Maxixe where he updates the passports of many foreigners
who work at the lodge. I went with him in
order to better understand all that is required for the 6 month visa. We arrived in Maxixe before 6am, and nothing
was open ‘til 7am when we had breakfast.
After that we took a ferry to Inhambane, where the Department of Labor
is. They were in a meeting and couldn’t
sign the paper so we wondered around town for a while…I was so excited to find
postcards and didn’t really realize they were over $1 each until I counted how
much money I had spent after we left
the store. An hour later we returned to
the Dept. of Labor and they were still in this long meeting. So we just waited at this café and about one
hour later Pete went alone to the Department of Labor and returned with the
necessary signatures. As we’re walking
toward the ferry he informs me that he paid them 200 meticais for the signatures...and
they didn’t want to accept the money in my presence. Take ferry back to Maxixe. Next stop: Immigration. While I am filling out forms Pete briefly
disappears. Afterwards we have a lunch
of champions: soft serve ice cream which I was very excited about because you
don’t get it in Vilanculos. Walking to
the taxi station, he casually informs me that he arranged ice cream and cokes
for the immigration workers…as well as padding their pockets too. “You can’t look at it like a bribe, it’s just
being generous and opening up our hands to them… If you want them to be nice to you, you need
to give them a motive,” he explained.
Efficiency is paramount in the USA. I never realized how valued efficiency is the
States until I moved to a place where it does not exist (unless there’s a
bribe). It’s an unspoken expectation of
how America operates. Its part of good
service and it is expected as a normative standard of any operating company,
business, restaurant, organization, school, etc. I don’t think there’s any section of American
society that does not carry with it some sense the importance of
efficiency.
Corruption is to Mozambique what efficiency is to
America. It is the unspoken expectation
of operation. I think every area of
society is affected by corruption from schools to most government offices. One friend of mine said his brother, a high
school biology teacher, was finally coming to his senses because he had decided
to accept bribes. Bribing is so common
within the government that it’s extremely difficult to get anything done
without bribes. They will purposefully
delay the process in hopes of getting a bribe.
There simply isn’t a standard of efficiency or accountability here. It’s just considered normal, and how you get things
done.
So when I found out that Pete
bribed people I was saddened, but not surprised.
As we were riding home in the chapa I was super convicted by the Holy Spirit. I had sinned.
By partnering with Pete I was bribing these people. And I’m not working for the lodge in any
capacity…which was necessary to say in order to get a 6 month visa. How could I possibly say bribes and corruption
are bad and should be avoided if that’s exactly what I was doing? Am I not contributing to the hypocrisy that
turns so many away from the church? I
had been so eager to get a 6 month visa that surely the ends justified the
means. With the Holy Spirit so clearly
telling this is wrong…Proverbs about bribes coming to mind and other Scriptures
that talk about submitting to government rather than trying to manipulate it and
find loopholes, I knew I could not go through with pursuing a 6 month visa or
anything else with Pete. So I told Pete,
I’m sorry. I just can’t do it. I don’t feel that it is right. I cannot do
with a clear conscience. Thank you for
the help and work on my behalf in the past but it will not continue. In
that moment that the Spirit also convicted him evidenced by the sudden and
obvious change of his countenance. He
also knows it’s not right.
So I will be traveling more to be here legally. This includes going to South Africa every 2
or 3 months for a new tourist visa and more travel to Maputo as well. This will take at least a few days every
month but I trust God to take care of me and provide. It was refreshing for me to go to South
Africa in October, and I trust that God knows what He is doing. It’s also a financial concern but I know He
takes care of me. My heart trusts Him.
Not until Jesus for
Africa is officially registered in Mozambique can I get a longer visa. Most of the paperwork still needs to be
collected, fees paid, and because we won’t use bribes…it will take a while.
