2) If you would like to get the visa yourself, simply let me know and I will email / fax the application forms to you.

You will also need to take care of your vaccinations. We highly recommend that you visit a Travel Health clinic who will advise you as to what vaccinations are needed. The Gov't does require that you have a Yellow Fever vaccination. Anti malaria pills are highly recommended. My suggestion is that you get as many "shots" as you can as you do not want to land in an African hospital.

 I would also recommend that you visit our website and look under TRAVEL PREPARATION as there are some very informative links especially AFRICAN HOSPITALITY. 

When making your reservations, we would require all names exactly as shown in your passports ( this is very important as the airlines will not do any name changes ), mailing address, telephone number and email address. If children are traveling, we will require the birth dates if under 12 years of age. F.Y.I. over half of the names that are given to us for the adopted children are incorrect and this then becomes a very stressful situation.

As your new adopted child will have an African passport, most countries in Europe will require a transit visa. This also takes time to get and can only be secured in Africa and an embassy of the country that you will transit when coming back. The only exception to this is to return via London England. If an African child is holding a valid visa for Canada or the USA, they will be permitted to transit London without a visa providing they do not leave the airport transit lounge. 

It is important that you familiarize yourself as much as possible about the country in Africa that you are traveling to. I would again recommend that you go to our website and go to the right hand side of the home page.

CLICK on "WORLD TRAVEL GUIDE".... a map of the world will appear, CLICK on Africa and then the country that you plan to visit. When the country page comes up, there will be a number of subcategories that will come up. ie If you want to see a bar graph of the weather -CLICK on climate, and so on.

You will also see AFRICA on our home page. CLICK on that and you will be able to get a lot of good info there as well. 

Making a trip to Africa for the purposes of adopting a child is a major step for you and we would like to offer you our services. Please feel free to contact us for any additional information that you may need. 

  

THE DARK SIDE OF TRAVEL - THE THIRD WORLD

We at Menno Travel Service want to make sure that you are aware of the possible dark side of travel as it relates to a Third World Country.

Please note that prior to any airline ticket leaving our office, we have made sure that all the flights are confirmed. Regrettably, all airlines overbook their flights. Statistics have been compiled at all airports on what the airlines refer to as the "no-show factor". This factor is the percentage of passengers who hold confirmed reservations but, for one reason or another, are unable to travel and fail to advise the airline of that fact. This percentage can be in excess of 10%. On a jumbo jet, that would be more than 40 seats, which often is the profit margin for the airline.

Because of this, the airlines automatically overbook their flights to protect against this loss.

In general, this policy works very well. However, there are days when everyone scheduled to be on the aircraft arrives at the airport and the flight is overbooked. To diffuse this uncomfortable situation, the airlines will blame it on the travel agents who made the booking, when in fact it is a result of their own overbooking policy. For this reason, it is imperative that you immediately reconfirm your return flights when you arrive at your destination. Be sure to take down the name of the airline agent who assisted you. We would suggest that this be done by your host at your destination. They understand the culture and customs, as well as speak the local language. 

Flight times do change from time to time. If you have access to the internet, we highly recommend that you go to our website and view your flight itinerary  exactly as the airlines see it. By doing this, you can verify your flight times. Just go to www.mennotvl.com , on the left hand side of our home page, click on CHECK MY TRIP and follow the directions from there.

When traveling in these countries, local airline agents may try to demand a bribe through various means. As a North American, you are considered wealthy and could be the target of such actions. Since it is unlikely that you will be returning to this country, or will ever meet this same person again, they feel safe in soliciting bribes. If you have reconfirmed your flights and a bribe is requested, immediately ask for the airline station manager to prevent this process from going any further.

Situations like this are unheard of in North America, but are alive and well in the Third World. To be forewarned is to be forearmed!