Monday, June 5, 2010

Today Tanya and her husband came to the office with us. It was fun to show them where we work. When I first got to the office I finished my journals from last week and sent them to Tanya. Then I went to try and extend my visa.

The woman at immigration was so rude. She seriously made me want to cry. I think I would have been fine if someone else went with me, but because I was all by myself it was really intimidating. First she yelled at me for the way I filled out the form. In an email I got from Renee before I arrived in Ghana she gave us instructions for how to fill out the immigration forms when we were on the plane. I filled out my second immigration from following the same instructions, but apparently the immigration officer did not like that. She yelled at me for using an Accra address, and again for putting tourism as my purpose for visiting. It was also difficult because I had a hard time understanding her English. Every once and a while someone else would come in the office and they would talk about me in Fanti. I could tell because they would both stare at me for a minute and then start laughing. Finally she started processing my paper work. They had to keep my passport, which is nerve wrecking in itself, and then told me I had to come back on the 19^th to collect my passport. I leave on the 19^th from Accra, and told her I wouldn’t be in Cape Coast. Reluctantly she ended up changing the date to the 15^th. She gave me a receipt and told me that if I lost it I wouldn’t be able to get my passport back. It just seems crazy to me because there is a quicker turn around on visas when you’re in the states and you have to mail your passport.

When I got back to the office I worked on drawing flats in illustrator of the softies we’re having sampled. I also helped take pictures of some of the new samples that came in so we can send them to Renee and Kristen to get them approved.

For lunch, we took Tanya and her husband to the place where we get those really good egg sandwiches.

We left work a couple hours early and went to the Cape Coast Castle with Tanya and her husband. It was really cool to go there and experience history, but it was really depressing because that is where they used to ship out slaves from. It was almost awkward because you were there with a bunch of Ghanaians, and it was almost like they made me feel like I was personally responsible for everything that had happened.

For dinner we went to Oasis with Tanya and her husband, I got a vegetable pizza. It was pretty much amazing. Its crazy that in two weeks I will be able to eat real pizza again. At Oasis, they had drumming and dancing.

After dinner we came home and went to Sea Top for a drink. We ended up calling it an early night. I came home, read for a while and went to bed.