Passport O Passport, Where Art Thou?

Obviously, Tim and I need passports to travel to Ethiopia. Tim's never had one, and mine expired a while back. So, on March 17 we went to a passport fair at a local post office. To say it was packed is an understatement. Families, couples, kids were everywhere, crammed into this modest-sized branch. There were so many people that a TV crew was there. We knew the government had recently changed the rules (passports required to enter Mexico, Canada and other places where they weren't previously needed), but we had no idea the chaos it would cause.

We waited for more than four hours until we finally turned in our paperwork and forked over at least $200. We were told the passports would be in the mail within 10-12 weeks. We're beyond that now, so I called the passport office and checked online. I almost laughed at the automated phone message — the person sounded exhausted! They've added additional employees and that's still not enough. The problem is to extensive that officials have had to hold off on fully implementing the new rules.

In the meantime, our passports are still milling about a governmental black hole. — Sarah