Yesterday night on the way home from Ramallah, it occurred to me while my head rested on the bumpy broken window that I don't know where my passport is. The last thing I needed to worry about this week since I was planning to leave to Amman for a few days.
But I found it, or so I thought. To my so very burdened busy, worried mind about every details of my friends, family lives I didn't remember that i had renewed my passport last December. So filled with energy and guilt I woke up this morning headed to the Ministry of Interior affairs in Bethlehem and filled papers for issuing a new passport (with the help of a friend who shall remain nameless, but for the sake of this post I'll call him M). After getting a ridiculous photo and paying 235 NIS I discovered that I already have one and now I have to file a report at the court to report its missing.
So this is what the guy at the Ministry told me or more likely wrote to me on a piece of paper without even looking at my face.
First: Go swear that you lost it (later discovered I need several papers to do so and this thing takes place in the court in another part of town)
Second: File a missing report at the police station (later also discovered I have to pay 50 NIS for)
Third: Publish an ad in the newspaper about the missing passport ( which after some inquiry from another friend found out that it costs at least 500 NIS)
I assured myself saying "It's all OK. You NEED the passport asap". As I left the office I told the man can I finish all of this today. he smirked back at me and said " well, after filing all the right papers, with some help from friends, and acquaintance it will take at least 10 days".
At this point my brain was screaming in silence "WHAT???!!" . I left the office as a lady and said thank you for all your help. Got a cab and went to the office to whine all about it to my friends.
So a perfect end to a perfectly terrible day...
This how it is in Palestine
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