We spent the better part of the morning running around and getting letters of accommodation and passport photos in order to legalize my status in the country. After a few hours of waiting and arguing with a cyber clerk about how much needed to be paid for a piece of paper that was printed, but had the format changed en route to the printer (i.e. the paper was printed, but incorrectly and the result wasn’t wanted), we made it to the embassy. As it turns out my fine for not renewing my visa when it expired was the equivalent of $10 and the cost to extend the visa the full 9 months was $25. I paid around $160 to have a company get me my initial visa that was only good for 3 months. Definitely got the short end of the stick on that one.
The rest of the day was spent in the car as the monks in Lomé wanted us to visit the artisan center in Kpalimé (about 2 ½ hours away).We showed up just before sunset, after the center had closed. But there was one shop that had trinkets and a traditional style of paintings. I, always on the lookout for a sweet spur of the moment buy, picked up a 5 foot cloth painting of Togo overshadowed by a woman walking with a jar on her head. Sounds amazing doesn’t it…that’s why it’s a painting so that words don’t have to describe it! After visiting the shop we turned around and came back. Not that I didn’t mind visiting, I really enjoyed it, but it was kind of a waste of gas. And the three monks who tagged along expecting to see the historical sites in the area along with some arts and crafts only saw a very small portion of the arts and crafts. At the very least it was a nice gesture for them to try and find something to entertain us, however unnecessary.
More recently from this morning, there is a very fashionable paper airplane with USAF written on the wing sitting in the far corner of the Ghana embassy. Give me a back seat and make me use it for 3 hours before waiting to find out that I have to come back the next day and I'll tell you to kiss my white ass in style. The two women working the embassy this morning didn't like Colin and I too much and they were lacking in some people skills. In hindsight, they do have my passport, but they took my money so they can't stop the visa from going through or prove that the airplane was mine. Win win.
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