Jeremy Clarke Jeremy Clarke

The joy of a Rwandan airport

The staff in the arrivals hall dealt with my visa complications and loss of ipad with grace ahd efficiency

issue 16 November 2019

Our plane touched down in Rwanda at 7 p.m. Stepping outside on to the metal steps, I smelt that unmistakable peppery, earthy, decomposing smell that says you have landed in tropical Africa and that for the foreseeable future things will be different. I crossed the tarmac to the arrivals halls and, sweating already, lined up to show my passport and visa.

Stupidly and inadvertently I had applied for the visa via a private online company called the Rwanda Visa Service, which charges a handling fee of nearly 200 per cent on top of the normal visa price. Four weeks before my departure date, I had successfully gone through all the online hoops and was informed that my visa was ‘pending approval’.

Three and a half weeks later it was still the case. I wrote an email. No reply. Two days later I tried again. This time a Rwanda Visa Service official said that he was very sorry, but owing to unforeseen difficulties his company could not supply me with a travel visa by the date required. If, however, I wrote down the following seven-figure number and showed it to the immigration officer on arrival, all would be well.

I stepped forward and showed my passport to the Rwandan immigration officer, who was young, decent, unassuming, calm, modest, patient and thorough. He was so unassuming that I wondered whether he had committed his heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. His name tag said his name was Rukondo, which means ‘love’. He asked me a lot of questions about myself as they occurred to him, as though he was satisfying a curiosity that was warmly personal rather than bureaucratic.

Finally he asked the question I was rather hoping he wouldn’t.

GIF Image

Disagree with half of it, enjoy reading all of it

TRY 3 MONTHS FOR $5
Our magazine articles are for subscribers only. Start your 3-month trial today for just $5 and subscribe to more than one view

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in