The Immigration Adventure

(I appolige for any miss spellings as spell check is defunct today)...

I quickly learned living here that, with few exceptions, I should not be leaving the house without my camera. Thursday's trip to the immigration office was no exception. There were no giant spiders or anything but I did get a couple shots of the capitol city St. George's.

This started off a simple task, extend my visa till may (inital stay is granted for 30 days only). I asked the S.O. group (Significant Others) what I needed and they said all you need is your passport. Packing my backpack with the camera i decided to throw in Megan's passport, a copy of our marriage certificate, and my S.O. ID card... just in case. Heading down the road towords the reggie bus stop, a white reggie buss honks it's horn one quick toot asking if I want a ride... I was told by the S.O. group all I needed to do was to ask them to take me to the immigration office and they'd get me there... I tell the bus driver this, he hesitates and said "ya mon hop in". In typical reggie buss fasion the co-pilot (my term, not sure what the locals call this person), hops out from the passenger side to let me in.

Side bar - Reggie busses are the public bus system here in Grenada. They will take you pretty much any where at about two to three times the safe speed while also blasting the loudest reggie music you've ever heard. All "buses" are toyota vans, you remember the ones from the early 90s where they have a real flat front and the driver and front passenger sit basically ON the engine (see HUGE hump in between front seats and back rows)? Well anyhow there are litterally hundreds of these busses screaming around the island. The co-pilot sits in the front row of the back hanging out of the window shouting at people on the street if they want a ride or not. This is essentially how they pick up fairs at 70mph. To get off a buss you knock on the roof when you get near your "stop" (see any place that looks suitable to you or the buss driver). Technically there are designated bus stops but besides a few with actual benches and pull out areas I have no idea how one would tell where a bus stop specifically is at, perhaps i'll pick this up later.

OK back on track. I hop into the van hand the co-pilot lady my 2.50 EC and ZOOM up the road. There was some discussion between the co-pilot and the driver after I got in which I knew had to do with where they were taking me but the slang and accent were beyond my abilities to understand. This made me a bit nervous but I quickly let that go as I reminded my self "just roll with it, that's all you can do". Note I hadn't actually gotten to the bus stop yet when it picked me up. It's quite convient for the passengers that a buss will stop anywhere to grab you although as a driver you have to be aware that it's perfectly normal for cars to go from 70 t0 0 for no apparent reason and stop anywhere they feel like. Note also trying to pass one such stopped vechicle will very likely result in a game of frogger between you and the passenger now darting across the street. I used google earth a fair amount prior to getting here trying to learn the lay of the land. I learned very little as the detailed photos didn't exsist for most the island, but one area did have a nice photo layout and that was the capitol city of St. George's. So when I showed up at this bee hive of reggie busses swarming around what looked like a two story parking garrage i knew I was at the main bus terminal. Before I exited the bus the driver pointed to a stone faced building and told me that is where I needed to go. I said my good bye's and thanked the driver and co-pilot and headed on my way. It was only about 50 yards from the bus stop so it didn't take long for me to reach the building. It looked offical with it's sign and all but it wasnt till I was right there when I could finally read it...

So.. yeah as you can guess by looking at the above sign I started to wonder about being in the right spot... Regardless I pressed forward and followed a very elderly lady into the building. I found my self standing in a small (about 8' x 8') waiting room with two elderly men on my left sitting, and an extreamly elderly lady on my right sitting, shaking and mumbling to her self, and lastly the lady I had followed in front of me was now at the counter. The worker looked at me with an odd expresion as I walked in as all her other customers were at least 50 years older then my self. Upon asking about immigration she really looked at me as if I were nuts, then said I needed to go to the Minstry Complex. Of course this took three times of her repeating it and me repeating it back to her (incorrectly) before I understood what she said. "Great, thanks. How do I get there?" I said. She told me some directions that made no sense to me so I tried another angle, "what bus number do I need to take to get there?". She said she didn't know but if I tell the bus drivers where I wanted to go that they would get me there.... haveing heard this once before I was a bit exasperated. I asked again if she had any idea what bus and she said "I think the #1 or the #2". Now I had riden to St. George's in a #1 and it hadn't driven by any type of complex that I was aware of. Leaving this place I figured I'd place my bets with a #2 bus and try my luck. As I got close to the bus station the co-pilot from my first bus ride appeared out of no where and asked if that was the correct building. When I told her that it was senior services she looked appoligetic and told me to follow her, that she'd make sure to find me the right bus. I hoped on to a packed bus... no I take that back I squeezed into the bus like a sardine hoping it was heading in the right direction but also knowing on a 12 x22 mile long island I couldn't go too far. luckily for me I was on the end pressed up against a window. I'll note real quick I was the only cacaucasion on the bus. No one ever gave me a hard time but it is different being the minority. We left the buss station and made a right cruzed down the road about 200 ft then made a three point turn in the middle of the road and headed back the direction we just came. I still don't have a clue what that was about. Then we proceded to wiz around in ciricles for about 15 minutes before finally heading in a direction I couldn't distinguish, but knew it was different because it invovled flying up a big ass hill. Eventually we showed up at a very large stucko and glass building. The co-pilot folded the seat down and out of the way in front of me which I took to mean this was my stop. I paid my 2.5 EC and circled around for a second for feeling quite relieved to see "Immigration" on another offical looking sign.

Now THAT's a bit more like what I was looking for! I enter stand in line, fill out this form and wait my turn. When I sit down with the immigration guy he already gives me the feeling he's doing me a favor to not just have me tossed me into the sea. I hadn't even said a word at this point. From her I handed him my passport and was not surprised at all when he said "where is your authorizing documentation?" ... my what? I told him I was told all i needed was my passport. Essentially we ended up going back and forth until I had eventually convinced him that my S.O. ID card which said "Type: Significant Other" was was proof enough that my wife was a SGU student because I couldn't have gotten this card otherwise. I also showed him everything I had and eventually after a number of disapproving looks he filled out a green peice of paper and told me "you know you HAVE to pay to stay here!" (which I was well aware of), I said no problem i knew it was 25 EC/month. I brought out 100 EC and he quickly turned it down telling me I don't pay him. I have to pay the tressery department. hmm ok. So I got some vauge description of where this was and started to head out when he told me, "they are closed for lunch"... uh hmm. oook. Asking how long the lunch was I was quite surprised to find out they only take an hour long lunch. I figured with my luck ti would be a 2.5 hour lunch. So I found a grassy knole and took a couple shots of the little harbor or carinage as they call it.

(Below) This shot looks a bit odd. What your looking at is the top of a cruz ship poking up over the city sky line. I like the shot mostly due to the fact that I could even take it. If you look ever so closely in the shot above and follow where the left most palm tree meets the hill you can see a white spot and a dark spot. That's the Ship and the steeple. Thanks to my very generous birthday gift my telephoto lense brings everything into close perspective. (Below) This is one of a couple old fortresses on the island. I have seen pictures from ontop of them where a few cannons still stand. I am assuming these are from the Spanish explorer's erra... aka Pirates of the Carribean time frame.. AARRGH!!!(Below) This is the Misistry Complex, out side of the SGU campus this is about 10 times bigger then any other building i've seen on the island.

(Below) note that all these photos were taken with me sitting in one spot. The houses just below the ministry complex, one partially painted but sturdy looking, the other just one step up from a tin shack. The diversity of homes and buildings here is very interesting. There are only a two area's i've seen that are clearly "wealthier" and one "poorer" area. It seems perfectly normal to have a shack next door to a nice house.

My lunch time photo shoot over I pay my dues at the tressury department, which happens to be in the printing department, or "Printery".

Back to the immigration office where I wait to see the unpleasent man again. To my surprise he stopped what he was doing with someone else, took my recipt and gave me back my completed passport! So it's offical I am now here till may.

Luckily for me buses come very frequently to the complex and it only took a matter of a minute or two before i was being shuffled back onto another screaming wild ride. Once at the main bus stop i decided to take a short walk around and snap a few shots of St. George's. In case your ever curious if you took a cruz ship here this is the area you'd see.

(below) This is the only good shot of the churches around here. If you look through the archway which used ot be a window you can see the sky straight through. The reason being is Hurricane Ivan in 2004 damaged or destroyed 90% of the buildins in Grenada. Every historical church (that i've seen at least) has no roof at all. All that's still standing is the walls and the bell tower. It's a sad sight but no one has the money here to do anything abou them, so they stand as hollow shells of what they once were.