Ordre de Mission

On Sunday, my mother is getting married (not my father), so later today I will be going to Philadelphia and spending a week in the US.

Last week, the Chair of the department tells me I may need to prepare an "ordre de mission" from the university in order to travel. Sounds crazy. But I walk up four flights of stairs, and ask the Academic Secretary (like an Assistant Dean). He sends me to another office. They tell me I have to pay 1,400 fc for the form ($3)--I tell them I was told it was 500 fc. Nope. The price changed. I buy the form. I ask for a receipt but the person in charge of receipts isn't there. I go down four flights of stairs and have the Chair of my department sign it and bring it back up four flights of steps to the Dean. They won't give it to the Dean because I need to have an official embossing stamp; the Chair's signature isn't enough. So I go back down and the Chair tells me he doesn't have a stamp. Why not? Because the people who sent me back to him won't buy the department one. And he says they know he doesn’t have a stamp. OK. So I say I think it will be easier if I just stay in the US instead of returning from my trip. It was a joke, but it was enough for the Chair to say that he will take it back up himself so that he can authenticate his signature. Then the form has to go to the Academic Secretary of the university (Academic Vice President), then the Rector (President), then they give you an official form. Which I now have.

Now, all of this seemed crazy to me. But of course it is not at all, after I was able to understand why they do this. At first, I thought it was mainly to keep track of professors, who frequently work abroad since UniKin does not pay regularly or adequately. This is only part of it, however. For Congolese, they need these forms to get in and out of the airport, through security, customs, etc. Many colleagues have told me that having the “Ordre de Mission” really helps. As a Fulbright Professor, I have a Big White American SUV and an embassy expediter who does these things for me.

It actually turns out that I will not be missing classes while I am away because the faculty went out on strike today for a week (because of the aforementioned inadequate salaries). Salaries are mostly up-to-date, but incremental raises, which were promised to end a previous strike, have not been implemented. The faculty decided a one-week strike would put some pressure on the government to keep its promise.

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I hope to keep blogging while I am in the US. I realize that I haven’t written much about teaching or eating (among other important activities). I still have plenty to say...