We geared up to do several things today, Friday the 4th of April 2008. We wanted to drive to one of our assigned Wards, without help, and make our way back. This was just to be a practice run to confirm to ourselves we could do it. We wanted to drive to a set of apartments where 3 sets of Elders live, called the Opebi Link Apartments. We are going to be going with Elders on Teaching Appointments and that is one of the locations we will pick Elders up. The traffic was "Tight". Emmanuel, the man who maintains the apartments & does several things for Pres. Dyreng, and our mission describes the traffic as "Tight" when you have to patiently, aggressively, "push" your way through to where you are going. We didn't get to the Ward we wanted to because of the Passport fiasco, I'll explain next. But, we did make it to the Vegetable Market and to the Elders apartments and back. Tight traffic equals 50 minutes to drive a total of less than 4 miles and hundreds of cars wanting to go exactly where you want to go!
We were alerted by our Professional Helpers (CPA & Lawyer) back home that we needed to get me applied for Social Security. The only place to do it is at the U S Consulate on Victoria Island. The Consulate is like a little piece of the U S of A and citizens can get in and do things they would normally do at home, if they have their passports. Our Mission President confiscated them when we came in a month ago. They evidently are then sent to Abuja, the Capital of Nigeria, with some paperwork and money so we can be here legally for the length of our mission.
Our Mission President had arranged for Emmanuel to drive us to the Consulate and back on Monday the 7th. Very thoughtful and kind of him to arrange it. President Dyreng told us we would need to get the Passports from Markus, who takes care of all travel, visas, in-country residence permits, etc. We went back and forth to his office 3 or 4 times to get the Passports with no success because he wasn't in. Finally his assistant, Christiannah gave us her cell phone number and arranged to call us when she tracked Markus, down. All of this time we can't go anywhere because it is critical to get the Passports if we are going to the Consulate on Monday. Finally, we received a call from Christiannah, telling us Markus would be back to his office by 3:00 PM. So, guess where we were at 3:00 PM? We were back at his office. No Markus! This is frustrating and unproductive. Ten or 15 minutes later, we received a call from Markus and we could finally explain what we needed. Tough beans Krupps, he says. The Passports are in Abujah, and won't be back for 2-3 more weeks. OK, we can handle this. What Sister Krupp really said was "RATS". So, no Passports, no trip to the
U S Consulate. We'll just wait until the Passports come back. Oh, one more unsuccessful. We took our mop and bucket upstairs to clean the Wadsworth's now vacant apartment. Their President, Pres. Evans made arrangements for someone else to clean it. Our mop and bucket are prisoners, stuck upstairs....locked in. I need them to clean tomorrow. Just one more thing on Nigerian Time. We'll get the mop and bucket when we get them and not before!!
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