Visa Fiasco

As an update to all of you following, I have hit a massive bureaucratic brick wall of incompetency at the Embassy of Ghana. Here's the low down.

I applied for my visa to Ghana about 2 months ago, and since then I have pretty much just been waiting around to receive that visa. After waiting around for about 6 weeks (they say it should take between 2-5 weeks to process), I started trying to contact the embassy to find out what point in the process my visa was at. Since then I have emailed and more recently called their offices about 20 times. In the entire time I have been calling, I have spoken to real live individuals 4 times, and I have left about twice as many voice messages on their answering machines. I have waited over the phone in a queue for up to 30 minutes trying to speak to someone only to be transferred to a voice-mail system after my long wait. Needless to say, the past few days have been both frustrating and infuriating. With the current countdown, my plane leaves the United States in 7 1/2 days. Currently, my passport (which I had to send with the application) and visa are lost in the ether contained in the Ghanaian Embassy in DC.

I have had to contact other offices in DC just in order have someone with some power try to find out where my application and passport have ended up. I'm am currently just waiting on that information. If they cannot find the package, I will have to go home immediately and make a trip to DC in order to apply for a new passport (paying another arm and a leg to get the process expedited) and then applying for a new visa (getting that expedited as well) so that just maybe I can still leave on August 4th for Ghana. In the mean time, I am hoping against hope that it can be found so that I won't have to pay all that extra money and so that I won't have to pick up and leave Fairmont right away.

So, for now, I am waiting on information, and trying to be as ready as I can be to leave Fairmont this evening. Which basically entails a huge list of this including all of my packing, packing whatever things Ross left at the apartment, making arrangements with both of my jobs, with financial aid at Fairmont State, and the head of the Honors department. Not to mention, rearranging a doctor's appointment, leaving instructions and a package for the new President of APO, and making sure I clean out my stuff from the apartment to get everything in storage. I just have a feeling it's gonna be a loooooong day.

Winding Down

So, time is running out and the clock in winding down to departure. I'm not sure how I should feel right about now. Of course I'm excited, but I'm also anxious and scared and worried about everything. I find that as each day passes I have another worry that rises to the surface. I'm still waiting on my visa, which scares me. I applied for in in early June, and I leave in a few short weeks. Talk about stressful. And now there's a billion and one other things to worry about, like how to make sure all my financial aid gets to me on time and what to pack, what to leave. I have to set up a power of attorney for dealing with any financial problems or other things in the states in my absence. I am even supposed to figure out what my dying wishes might be and let my family know. It's weird to even think about telling my Mom that in case I get Malaria and die I want all of my possessions donated or that if I am on life support at any point I want them to let me go, I mean what kind of decisions are those to make at age 21. Honestly, I am not particularly worried about dying or anything while I'm in Africa, but the fact that all of these things are supposed to be prepared is a little weird and frightening.

I think the hardest thing right now is the constant running total of goodbyes. I am constantly thinking, this is probably the last time I'll see this person before I leave for Africa. Or this could be the last time I do a musical at Fairmont State. This could be the last time I see Doc O before I go to Africa. It drives me crazy, and honestly it puts me in a constant state of melancholy. I'm always reflecting and thinking on the people that matter most, who I'll really miss while I'm gone, who will really miss me. I'm not sure if that's healthy or not, but it can be kind of depressing, especially for someone as self-depreciating as myself. I imagine that the last few days before I leave will be the worst display of crazy rampant emotional Eliza that there has been in a long time. The hardest is definitely going to be saying goodbye to Ross. I can't really think about it without dissolving into a puddle. Maybe I really am just a wimp.

SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS!!!

So, I just got all my shots taken care of. It cost me $305 for all the vaccines and then another $24 in medications that I have to take with me over there. Less than my original estimate, but still a pretty hefty chunk of change. It wasn't too bad getting all the shots, but the yellow fever vaccine was by far the worst. The nurse said it would sting and maybe burn a little. In reality it was like they injected acid into my arm. My whole arm started trying to spasm and I had to clench fist to keep it still. Nurses always use words like a little sting, like a bee sting, or a little burning- it's not that bad. That's what they always say, but really they are always lying. I'm pretty sure it's part of their training to say the same thing each time regardless of what the sensation might actually feel like, that way they don't scare away everyone getting the shots. I even got a big red welt around the area that I got the yellow fever shot at. It's been 6 days and it's still on my arm, still hurts. That's the crappy part. I am also done with my oral typhoid vaccine pills as well. It's 4 pills taken every other day, so it can be hard to remember, but I haven't missed one yet. Luckily as far as reactions go, mine weren't that bad. The day I got all of them I think I was a bit overly emotional and edgy and I got a dull headache for like an hour that day (whether that was from stress in rehearsal or the vaccines is speculative). At one point, I got really dizzy and had to sit down, but thankfully that was it. I've heard of other people who will get really sick and feverish or have stomach problems. And of course then there's the fluke chance of having the vaccine react with your body in a way that could kill you, but I'm still alive, so I guess that's a good sign.

At this point, it's really just playing the waiting game. I've got 4 weeks til departure. And still lots of packing and mental preparation to do, but other than that I'm ready for Africa. The countdown begins...