This Saturday, I’m supposed to board a plane bound for Cairo, Egypt, to attend the 12th convening of the “World Urban Forum” (WUF12) hosted by UN-Habitat. It’s an event I’ve been eagerly anticipating—except for one small issue: my passport and visa are still somewhere in transit or sitting on someone’s desk, and the Consulate General of Egypt hasn’t sent them back yet.
For Canadian citizens, the process of obtaining an Egyptian visa doesn’t allow for the ease of eVisas. Instead, I had to go through a much more traditional route—one that felt surprisingly outdated and inconvenient. This involved filling out paper forms, photocopying a whole stack of travel documents, mailing cash, and even sending my physical passport to the Egyptian Consulate in Montreal.
It’s now Monday, and with my departure just five days away, there’s still no sign of my passport or visa. So, I’m looking at the real possibility that I won’t be going to Egypt after all.
If you’re a praying person, I could really use a miracle right about now.
Peace, dwight