Immigration

Here is some dialogue for all of my avid readers. The setting: Ghana Immigration Services Office in Kumasi.

Me (trying to sound as polite as possible so as not to come across as arrogant): “Good afternoon, I would like to apply for a visa extension please.”

Bureaucrat: “You must come back later, we are on break”

Tony (still trying to be polite): “When should I come back?”

B: “2 pm.”

T: “Can I wait in here?”

B: “You wait outside.”

So I did. No big deal—it was 1:45 and a bench in the hall is no different than one in the office. But it gets better. Twenty minutes later I went back in, really turned on the charm and sat down with a different woman, who obviously recognized me from before Christmas. Her first words to me:

“You’re still in this country?”

Well, I guess you could deport me. Why the hell would anyone ever want to renew their visa if that is the response they get? After that it got a bit better. I still couldn’t get an extension, as I need a letter from RUCNET, but that’s no big deal.

Look, I’m not asking people to kiss my feet just because I’m a volunteer here. There are millions of us anyways. But come on, that was ridiculous.

Life does go on however, and that was merely an unpleasant blip on an otherwise pleasant day. I’m going to go cook myself some spaghetti. Bye for now. Or as a Ghanaian immigration officer might say: “you’re still reading this?”