…I don’t have a pen. A week ago, I arrived at the Freetown airport in Sierra Leone and waited for the man at the desk to stamp and sign my visa, but he didn’t have a pen. So I gave him my pen, which he held onto.
This afternoon, I arrived at the Gambia International Airport and waited while the woman at the desk looked, and looked, and then started waving my passport at a colleague in a nearby booth. Oh, you need a pen? Use mine, please. I took it back afterward, but I wonder if perhaps we need a new NGO, making sure passport control agencies are fully stocked in pens. Anyone looking for a niche?
David Evans' personal blog 