This month we had to visit the United States Embassy to renew my passport. Adam, Desmond, Evie and I went, borrowing a friend’s car to avoid having to taxi. We snagged my new passport photos at a little photo shop on the way and arrived on time for our appointment.
Upon checking in with the guard standing outside we were directed to wait in the “waiting room” which is a patch of dirt and sparse trees across the street from the embassy. When we were allowed to do the next step of check-in at the outer window we found out that only Evie and I were going to be allowed inside. The embassy is extremely strict on security measures including restricting how many people are inside at one time and doing these various checks before allowing anyone in. When we had done Evie’s passport several months earlier our whole family had gone inside so we thought that would be the case for this appointment as well, however for an adult passport it turns out that entrance is restricted to just the adult renewing (and in this case Evie since she’s a baby needing to stay with me).
In the ensuing hurry of divvying up our belongings based off what I would need with Evie and what Adam would need with Desmond I ended up with just the diaper bag and headed inside to go through the metal detectors and bag scanners. I placed my bag, sunglasses and paperwork in the bin. There are no electronics allowed inside so I didn’t have my phone with me. Then I went through the metal detector with Evie, exchanging some Wolof greetings with the guard ushering me through and feeling quite proud of myself for the interaction.
I turned to get my bag and the guards doing the bag checks asked me, “Avez-vous un couteau dans ce sac?”; “Do you have a knife in this bag?”. Thinking it was just a standard question I chuckled and said “No”. After a pause though I realized that they were intently staring at the scanner view of my bag and then it hit me. A couple of weeks ago we had had a picnic and I had thrown a butter knife into the diaper bag! Panicked I started to explain. With wide, incredulous eyes they handed me the bag so I could remove the knife. Through profuse apologies I went back through the metal detectors and thankfully caught Adam before he had walked away so I could give him the knife.
I hurriedly walked back through security, with plenty more apologies, and went out of the security building. From there I went to the next building and sat down. At this point you are sitting in a big, blessedly air conditioned room in rows of chairs. The guard at the entrance to this room tells you which person you’re going to go after and you receive a number (not sure why both are needed). Eventually you hear your number or see that the person before you was the last one to go and you head up to one of the windows along the front of the room.
As I sat there, finally beginning to stop sweating from panic and embarrassment, I decided to verify that all my paperwork and photos had made it with me in the shuffle. Which is when I realized that while I had try to sneak a weapon into the embassy, I had not brought any money with me. The passport renewal is a closed process once in this room – you go up to a window and give them your application and old passport then walk down to another window to pay and bring a receipt of payment back to the original window. Air conditioning or not I’m sweating again wondering what to do and really hoping not to have to go back through the security. And once outside I would have to hopefully track Adam down since I didn’t have my phone to contact him.
By God’s grace another family from Mia’s school happened to have a passport appointment at the exact same time for their baby and were sitting behind me. They could thankfully cover me and I made it out without any further issue. In fact the guards even shared a genial laugh with me on the way out as I once again offered apologies.
While not necessarily the most ideal Embassy visit it certainly makes for a good story! Life is never dull in West Africa.
-Selina
* photo above of Des passed out on the way home from the appointment…which is what I looked like once we got home 🙂
