Originally Posted by
megan
your use of the word "facilitation" is a bit of a giveaway as to the company, the big E.
Not really a giveaway - I worked for a smaller oil company in Africa and we also used the term. It was very frustrating - you did your best as an expat not to play but you really couldn't do your job without it.
It was endemic - everything from customs clearance of personal effects shipments to entry visas and vaccinations. I had a BA travel clinc yellow card with a "cholera" vaccine stamp on a separate piece of paper even though the vaccination was not required by the WHO and never given. Sometimes even that didn't work... in one country I was directed to the "health control" counter with a scary looking jar of used and bloody syringes on it. The conversation went like this: Officer in dirty white coat: "you must have cholera vaccine". Me: "How much to have the vaccine?" Officer "Ten dollars U.S." Me: How much NOT to have the vaccine?" Officer: "Ten dollars U.S.". I happened to go back after they built the new airport many years later and saw a sign over the unoccupied health counter "Cholera vaccine is not required"...