To those of you who know me best I kind of just like to go with the flow on adventures that I plan... This makes it easy for my adventures to be classified as more.. interesting than some. But they always make for great stories and you know how I love telling stories.
So Lydia and I got lost in New York for four days. How? Well its called me being really really dumb.
Lesson Number 1: ALWAYS READ THE DIRECTIONS
With all my experience traveling to other African countries (and all the other countries I've ever traveled to in the world) I have always been able to get a visa when I enter the country but for some reason Ghana is different and I didn't read that part.
We traveled all the way to New York City and were just about to get on our flight and the airline people were checking our passports once again and just barely decided to inform me that I couldn't get onto the plane because I don't have a visa. You could imagine my face, WHAT!
Luckily there was a nice African man (Abdul) working with Delta who had sympathy for us and took us under his wing. He did way more for us than his job required of him! He is a true true friend and reminds me of how many good and kind people there are in the world.
He told us about how we could get a visa now that we were already in New York. He said there were two options: the first, and best one, was to call someone we know in Ghana to get us one at the airport and fax it over the next day and the next one was to wait until the weekend was over and go into the Ghana Consulate office to apply for one and wait for it to come in.
I tired the first option immediately by calling all of my Ghanian friends. They were so great. I'm so grateful top them but it ended up not working out.
So Lydia had to stay three nights in a hotel Abdul got for us from Delta (since it was partly their fault) and we traveled around New York City- making it up as we went. We lived out of our carry ons for 4 days and was glad for our extra pair of clothes.
On Monday we went into the consulate office and waited in a very unorganized line for our Visa approval. They mae us come back three different times for small reasons like stapling something together. I could hardly breathe while the Ghanian lady looked through our stuff for a final time. She finally approved us and said with rush it would be here maybe Wednesday. I talked to her (sweetened her up a bit) and she said she would call me if it maybe could be done by tomorrow. I thanked her but didn't bet on it happening.
The next day she called an hour before the office closed and said get here by three and will have your visa for you. Problem was it was an hour and a half shuttle, subway, and walking journey into the middle of New York City. We made a quick decision to pay extra and get a taxi and told him to drive as quickly as possible. (still a 45 minute drive without traffic)
The entire ride my body was so tense, I could hardly breathe. We made it all the way into the city but got stuck in traffic a half a mile away so we jumped out of the taxi and RAN barefoot through the crowded streets up to the consulate office. We made it just in time but my hands were shaking afterward. We were on a flight that night thanks to Abdul.
Here in Ghana living at an orphanage. Amazing people, good experiences.
Lesson Number 2: There are ALWAYS nice people, no matter where you go
(dont have time to edit hope this makes sense!)
So Lydia and I got lost in New York for four days. How? Well its called me being really really dumb.
Lesson Number 1: ALWAYS READ THE DIRECTIONS
With all my experience traveling to other African countries (and all the other countries I've ever traveled to in the world) I have always been able to get a visa when I enter the country but for some reason Ghana is different and I didn't read that part.
We traveled all the way to New York City and were just about to get on our flight and the airline people were checking our passports once again and just barely decided to inform me that I couldn't get onto the plane because I don't have a visa. You could imagine my face, WHAT!
Luckily there was a nice African man (Abdul) working with Delta who had sympathy for us and took us under his wing. He did way more for us than his job required of him! He is a true true friend and reminds me of how many good and kind people there are in the world.
He told us about how we could get a visa now that we were already in New York. He said there were two options: the first, and best one, was to call someone we know in Ghana to get us one at the airport and fax it over the next day and the next one was to wait until the weekend was over and go into the Ghana Consulate office to apply for one and wait for it to come in.
I tired the first option immediately by calling all of my Ghanian friends. They were so great. I'm so grateful top them but it ended up not working out.
So Lydia had to stay three nights in a hotel Abdul got for us from Delta (since it was partly their fault) and we traveled around New York City- making it up as we went. We lived out of our carry ons for 4 days and was glad for our extra pair of clothes.
On Monday we went into the consulate office and waited in a very unorganized line for our Visa approval. They mae us come back three different times for small reasons like stapling something together. I could hardly breathe while the Ghanian lady looked through our stuff for a final time. She finally approved us and said with rush it would be here maybe Wednesday. I talked to her (sweetened her up a bit) and she said she would call me if it maybe could be done by tomorrow. I thanked her but didn't bet on it happening.
The next day she called an hour before the office closed and said get here by three and will have your visa for you. Problem was it was an hour and a half shuttle, subway, and walking journey into the middle of New York City. We made a quick decision to pay extra and get a taxi and told him to drive as quickly as possible. (still a 45 minute drive without traffic)
The entire ride my body was so tense, I could hardly breathe. We made it all the way into the city but got stuck in traffic a half a mile away so we jumped out of the taxi and RAN barefoot through the crowded streets up to the consulate office. We made it just in time but my hands were shaking afterward. We were on a flight that night thanks to Abdul.
Here in Ghana living at an orphanage. Amazing people, good experiences.
Lesson Number 2: There are ALWAYS nice people, no matter where you go
(dont have time to edit hope this makes sense!)
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