I've officially gotten my plane ticket!! I leave on June 5 and return on August 26.
Meanwhile, some interesting things have happened.
A few weeks ago, I woke up to my phone buzzing. Not recognizing the number, I sat up in bed and forced my eyes open and tried to make my voice sound perky.
“Hello?”
“HELLOOOHH. ES THIS ERIKAHH?”
“Yes this is! Hi!”
“I HAM FRAHM THE GHAANA CONSEEWLATE AND WE CANNOT ISSUE A VISAH AT THIS TIME.”
“Oh, okay. Um what was…. why not?”
“YOU WROTE OHN THE RECEIPT!! YOU DID NOT HAVE THE YELLUW FEVAH VACCINE! YOU CANNOT APPLY WEETHOUT HAVING A RETAHN TECKET! I CANNOT ISSUE YOU A VISAH!”
“Um okay. I’m really sorry.”
“YUS. YOU CANNOT WRITE ON THE RECEIPT. WE CANNOT ISSUE A VISA. YOU WAH NOOT SUPPOSED TO WRRITE ON THE RECEIPT!!!”
“Ok. I guess I’ll send another application when I have the other information.”
“YES. I AM SENDING YOAH THINGS BACK NOA. YOU CANNOT HAVE A VISA.”
“Ok. Thank you.”
“BYE!!”
“Um. Bye.”
Ooops.
The thing that really gets me is that she seemed the most angry about the fact that I wrote on the print-out copy of the website. This paper had no indication that it was too valuable and important to have anything written on it. All it said was, “Thank you, BOOTHMAN. Your confirmation number is ####, please include this in your application, along with the things listed above.” They weren’t concerned about my staying in Ghana indefinitely and taking their jobs (i.e. no return plane ticket) or bringing Yellow Fever into their country – side note: proof of Yellow Fever vaccination is required by law to get into Ghana. Interesting. But NO. She was upset that I wrote a little note saying, “this is where I’ll be staying, feel free to call me at this number if you have any problems, I’m enclosing proof of sufficient funds. Thank you so much.”
So much for all Ghanaians being exceptionally hospitable and amiable and loving and sweet all the time. Turns out, they’re not 100% perfect, like my pocket-sized Ghana guidebook made me think. My mom told me not to write that on here because it might offend some Ghanaians. To that, I say, every human is … well…. human, and everyone has bad days. I’m pretty sure that Ghanaians are not exempt from that. And that’s totally okay. And I’m glad that I had a hyper-accelerated opportunity to practice understanding the Ghanaian accent, especially while I was groggy and while she was talking REALLY fast. I think, all things considered, I did pretty well.
Anyway, that mistake cost me about $50 in shipping, but the Consulate was nice enough to send back my $50 bank order unscathed and uncashed. What an adventure. I am learning so much already about governments and visas. I have a feeling that my real-world education isn’t over yet.
I actually created a post to talk about something else (vaccines, I think), but that needs to wait until later. I’m tired and am trying to limit my posts to a page (single-spaced, in a Word doc.). I’m making progress on my checklist, though.
Here are the things I’ve accomplished:
- Vaccines!
- Buy plane ticket
- Done LOTS of hard work on the survey questionnaire
- Submitted a (hopefully successful) visa application
- Start eating meat :-/
- Performed a trial interview with two Ghanaian physicians who are doing their fellowship here. On a scale of 1 to awkward, it was a little beyond awkward. Some of my questions (ex: abortions, contraceptives) are a little too blunt and need to be revised. Oh well—they were very good sports about it, and hopefully I’ve worked out some of the major kinks of the process.
I still need to:
- Email program directors to introduce myself... maybe try to get the list of people I'm interviewing? (fingers crossed!)
- Keep eating meat :-/
- Finish survey questionnaire
- Learn to speak Twi ("Uti bruofu annnaaa?" "Yes, I do speak English!!")
- Write personal statement; start/finish medical school applications
- Graduate college
Ghanaian proverb of the day: “If you do not utter insulting words into a hole in a tree, the leaves of the tree will not shake.”
