Immigration Day

The usage of the word bureaucracy, whilst rolling your eyes and sighing deeply, is not quite justified until you have spent an entire day at the labor department of the British Virgin Islands.

Being a foreigner intending to spend a summer working on a tropical island entails having to go to the labor department and wait for paperwork to be finished for most of the day. And then wait some more. And a little longer, only to find out that the copy machine was broken so that you might have to wait a little longer. Just a little longer. Like school children in matching uniforms all of the Action Quest staff patiently lined up in the hallway – making sure that our feet were not blocking the way for anyone passing. This akward position is comfortable for a very brief period of time. After that the struggle of resisting a more comfortable position begins. And it lasts for quite some time. At some point, far, far away in the future, you are done with your paper work and you are allowed to roam the streets of Road Town as a free man or woman. The rest of the day will be “staff training” i.e. getting familiar with the water sports equipment of the program. In other words, we will set up waterski boats, picos and windsurfing boards. Hopefully I will get a chance to try them out – just in case they are not working. Someone has to do it, right?

#BVIs