Friday 14th June - The journey has started!

(picture from last year's youth visit)

Sirat and the children are now in Jordan - except for Asma - again because of problems in the British visa-application process (her passport was still in Amman, and has to be collected and given to her tomorrow...). Tomorrow they will go to the British Embassy in Amman to reapply for their visas (as they were initially refused) and Asma and Ahmed will join them and do the same thing.

Here, we should extend many many thanks to all the schools, youth clubs etc in Camden who wrote to say this was a bona fide visit - we think it made a difference and it should be noted that, now, the Embassy is being very helpful. We fully expect that they will get the visas now, although they lose a day.

I think this is the list of things that they had to do before they could come...

- get invitations from us in London

- get new passports (how many journeys was that?)

- get parents to sign consent forms

- gather papers and do application forms for British visas

- get these to Jerusalem, now cut off behind the wall

- travel to Ramallah to have fingerprints taken

- get permits to allow the girls to travel with Sirat out of Palestine (Israeli regulations)

- get some sort of documentation to let them come into Jordan in Sirat's care

- in the case of two of them, go and get the biometric tests done again as they didn't work first time round

- (Sirat) wait in the long queue of people collecting passports, very many of whom found that they hadn't been given a visa

- keep cheerful when the British visas were refused

- go to the British Embassy in Amman to apply again - wait another day for the biometric things to prove acceptable

- having started this all actually months ago, get on the plane a day late.....

But المحم (the important thing) - hurray, they are coming, and we are really really looking forward to seeing them. They have a fantastic programme - even with Monday missing - of school singing and music classes and religion and history classes and refugee assemblies, and youth clubs doing so many things... pity they will miss the football. But they will do Brighton and the London Eye and a concert and a festival... Hope it is a great time for all of our visitors!