Posted by:
Tevai
(
)
Date: September 13, 2016 02:26PM
This is serious time...
[...and it comes well fortified with my experiences in both South Africa (where I was VERY close to being murdered TWICE), and from Colombia (my initial experience in this kind of international danger) ]
Your nephew needs to pull up:
https://ukraine.usembassy.gov/ta-061716.html (Ukraine Travel Warning: June 17, 2016) and read every word of it, taking the appropriate notes and putting them in several different places (wallet, suitcase, Book of Mormon, etc., etc.), so if they are needed, they can be accessed immediately.
He needs to keep his passport with him if at all possible, and (if this is at all possible) take it into the consular section of the US Embassy, just as soon as he arrives in Ukraine, to register it. The consular employee will examine it for authenticity, and then make an official record of it, which says that your nephew is indeed a US national, and indeed does carry a US passport, and that the passport he carries is genuine. This means: if his passport is "lost" (which could mean: in the Mission President's desk or office safe), your nephew can go back to the consular section and he will be given an immediate replacement passport. (Otherwise, without passport registration, getting a new US passport could take weeks.) This will also register his address and phone number in Ukraine (and this information needs to be updated as necessary, because the situation re: Russia will undoubtedly be fraught for as long as your nephew is on his mission).
He needs to print-off the Contact Information page (
https://ukraine.usembassy.gov/contact-information.html ) and keep copies of this page in the same places as the page above, where at least one copy is instantly accessible if needed.
(And any missionaries serving with him should be doing the above as well.)
Most of all, he needs to "Get Wise" (as South Africans say) ASAP, because depending on what happens in the larger context, his life and safety, and the lives and safety of those he is serving with, could depend on it.
When I blundered into the two situations in which I was in very imminent danger of being murdered, I thought I was being wise and safe (in one case, I just got lost because there was not an on-ramp to the freeway where I had reason to think there was, and I was trying to work my way back TO the freeway, by using the up-to-date street map of Pretoria and the surrounding area that I had in my lap---only it turned out, that map didn't show NEARLY enough information to keep me from blundering into a place I most definitely should not EVER have been in---my deep and sincere thanks to the sangoma ("witch doctor") who made the decision that allowed me to be typing these words today).
Your nephew needs to be as prepared for the "real world" as he can possibly be---and he is going to an area which is in continuing danger of being invaded by Russia.
Have him get the necessary info, and do what is necessary, to potentially allow him, and those he serves with, to be safe and secure (even if the place they will be serving in is not either of these things).
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/2016 02:30PM by Tevai.