I was trying to purchase online a travel VISA for Uganda. Simple task really. Uganda has a very user friendly website. Actually I enjoy using it, because whoever created it was a genius - he/she was no average government employee. Just fill in a few blanks, upload a .jpg of your passport, yellow fever docs, and a passport size recent photo, put in your credit card numbers, and voila - VISA application completed. Then 24 hours later a VISA is issued. The system functions beautifully. But wait. . . My credit card company denied the charge as being potentially fraudulent. Apparently, purchasing airfare on the same credit card to Uganda is not necessarily a good indicator of needing a VISA to the same country. I'm not sure why. Immediately after the Card's rejection, I receive a phone call from the fraudulent department asking if I made that purchase. After proving that I did, they said I should contact the merchant and resubmit. I did, and this was when I first learned that Uganda doesn't let you resubmit, nor let you redo your entire application in order to resubmit. Oh, no. . .
Well, after several weeks of long distance phone calls to an office building somewhere in Jinja, Uganda, emails to the embassy in Washington, and prayers I finally could resubmit. The IT worker's beautiful handiwork caused me to pause just a brief moment before hitting the payment submit button, and during this short pause I decided I would call the Credit Card company first just to let them know that I am about to make this purchase by pushing this button. A very nice lady with an accent that I couldn't quite place answered the call, and she made notes on my account to that effect. Here is the rest of the conversation:
Nice Bank lady: "Go ahead and make your purchase."
Me: "Great." [Push submit button]
Web Bill Pay: "DENIED SUSPICION OF FRAUD"
Me: [Throws my baseball cap across the room while a deep guttural "AARRRGGG" emanates from somewhere deep inside. The cap hits my guitar. The guitar is ok.]
Nice Bank Lady: "Expect to receive a phone call from the fraudulent department verifying your purchase in just a few moments, and then you can resubmit your purchase with the merchant."
Me: "There is no merchant. It's a foreign government. There is no resubmitting or reapplying."
Nice Bank Lady: "Well then, if I can be of further service please let me know."
Me: "No, you've done quite enough."
Two days to go before leaving on a jet plane, so, I think I'll take a few new and crisp $50 bills and hope for the best with the guy at immigration control. I suspect this whole episode will soon become a sermon illustration, what do you think?
