Visas

Well, after a minor shoot-my-passport-is-gone-forever scare that was easily resolved by a visit to my friendly neighborhood post office, it’s back in my possession, Paraguayan visa and all! I now not only have a plane ticket to Paraguay, but I can actually legally enter the country. This is a step in the right direction. They’re apparently more trusting of the fact that I do indeed plan on returning to the States at the end of my two month stay than my own mother, who is convinced that I’m going to fall in love with a Paraguayan, never to return. I would assert that I’m more likely to fall in love with Paraguay than with a Paraguayan, though this does little to assuage her fears, I’d guess…

Sorry this is the best I can do for pictures right now, but really, we all know this is pretty exciting!

Anyway. If we get right down to it though, I still wouldn’t make it to Paraguay yet. I still need to get a Brazilian visa. No, I’m not going to Brazil. Unless you count the six hours I’m going to spend in the Sao Paulo airport. But, if I got to claim having been to every place whose airport I’d flown through, I would be a significantly more well traveled person than I actually am, and that seems unfair, so I’m going to stick with I’m not actually going to Brazil. But I still need a visa for Brazil, just to fly on through. Thus begins the absurdity of Brazil.

Getting a visa to Paraguay was a relatively simple process. Get some pictures taken, make some photo copies, fill out a one page form, write a check, send it off, sit nervously for a few weeks, get it back. Not so, with Brazil. It starts off pretty much the same—get some pictures taken, make some photo copies, fill out a form…and this is where it deviates. Because Brazil, being the silly country that it is (I had nothing against Brazil until I tried to get a visa from them, now I’m not very fond of it.) doesn’t accept visa applications by mail. Like I said, silly. (Insert the stronger words I’m likely using in my head here at your discretion.) I mean, I understand that mail is a slightly outdated form of communication these days due to this whole technology thing, but let’s be clear that this doesn’t mean technology has developed to the point that I can easily teleport myself to Houston to visit a consulate and get my visa. Besides, we all know that if I could do that I would just teleport myself to Paraguay to begin with and not have to worry about all this nonsense. Let’s also be clear that just because I can afford to fly to Brazil, or through it, as the case may be, doesn’t mean I can afford to fly to Houston for this express purpose, or pay a visa agent (yes, such things exist, apparently) $100 to do it for me. So this is where my wonderful-best-ever Aunt Anne who conveniently lives in Houston comes in. That’s right, she’s offered to go to the Brazilian consulate for me. Did I mention she’s a wonderful-best-ever kind of Aunt? She is.

There are more absurdities to this Brazilian visa process, but I’m going to spare you the details, because I might not be able to stick to “silly” if I go into it.

Now, it seems to me that if I’m going to go through this exceptionally tedious process and spend the inordinate amount of money on a Brazilian visa, I need to make this experience slightly more worthwhile, but I’m not quite sure how to go about making that happen, seeing as, like I’ve mentioned, I’m only going to the airport. I mean, Brazil is supposedly known for their beautiful women, which I’d guess the airport would have a fair number of, but, this doesn’t really do it for me.

So—any bets on how much Portuguese I can pick up in six hours??

Fundación Paraguaya

Well, I lied. That doesn’t get me off to a very good start, does it? I said I was going to tell you what I’ll be doing in Paraguay this time, but I’m not. Seeing as they haven’t told me exactly what I’ll be doing yet, I’d be hard pressed to tell you. But in the meantime, I’ll tell you what I do know.

I will be working with an organization called Fundacion Paraguaya. They are a field partner of Kiva, another great organization that I have been involved with by means of investments for the past couple years. Fundación Paraguaya is primarily a microfinance institution, but also has programs in public health and agricultural and entrepreneurial education. I suspect I will be working mainly with microfinance, but I’m hoping I’ll actually get to do some work in each sector, just to diversify my experience.

Microfinance is just what it sounds like--financing, but on a micro level. So, in general, it often provides small (seriously, small--$50-$2000) to individuals in the developing world to allow them to earn a livelihood and become self-sufficient. People can do things like buy a sewing machine to run a tailoring business out of their homes, or use the money to buy more capital to allow them to expand an existing small business they have, like running a grocery store or restaurant out of the front of their homes. If you're curious about the things people do with this money I strongly suggest looking at the Kiva website I've posted above and clicking on the "lend" button at the top to see the kinds of people who receive this money around the world. I'm sure you've heard the quote "give a man a fish and you feed him for today; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." That's kind of what microfinance is like. It allows people to truly develop a means to take care of themselves and become self-sufficient in ways that other types of aid don’t. Microfinance has tended to benefit and empower women more than men, often because women are the ones who are otherwise unable to receive financing from the more common sources, and are apparently also more responsible with the funds they do receive, though men are certainly recipients as well.

This is something I'm passionate about and am really excited and grateful for the opportunity to learn more about it, witness it firsthand, and become personally involved.

On an unrelated note, I got over 400 dollars of vaccinations earlier this week, and therefore felt like someone had punched me in the arm for a few days. My passport is also currently in the possession of the United States Postal Service. Terrifying? Yes. But it’s on its way to the Embassy of Paraguay in Washington D.C. for my visa! So it’s worth it.

Also, sorry this is so very wordy…it will get more interesting and even have pictures once I actually get to Paraguay! Imagine that.