Coming to America.

Where do i start?

Probably the reason why i came to Kansas City in the first place. For an elective term for med school. The process was the usual, read poster, wrote letter, got picked, then the real problems started.
First, i'd lost literally every important document that i needed to eventually get a visa. Check this out...
1. Importantly i didn't have a passport - (and i want to go to stato??)
2. then, I'd lost my wallet with my ID card and lots of cash..
3. the same wallet also had my ATM card, which basically meant i could get my hands on liquid cash for a long while, that or i line up to pay 100 bob to withdraw cash!! (Banks !)
4. the wallet also had my University ID...
5.my birth certificate (that i was informed i had to have to apply 4 a Kenyan passport..) had got lost like 5 or 6 years ago, i couldn't even remember the last time i saw it..

in a nutshell, i had absolutely no documents to confirm my identity yet here i was hoping to travel across borders to the land of the free, home of the brave..
Anyone with an idea about how things work in Kenya would know that i was in deep sh*t, it would easily take months to get each of those documents.

This was in April, and the elective was to start in October.. i had about 5 and a half months to sort all this out.

Started at the chief's office. Yeah, they were amused at how i wanted to get an ID without any documents. They suggested i come with my school leaving certificate..
Good grief ! I couldn't even remember the first place i put that thing! No one had asked me for it, and i didn't think any one would... So to plan B. Getting a letter from the Faculty Dean. So off i went to his office..

"Ask in 02 downstairs, they will ask you to ask the Registrar's office for your "FILE""(nini hio??) i didn't know they have a FILE, for each student.. as they prepare to look for that, you should start writing a letter requesting for the letter that you are requesting from the Dean...." ??? WTF! can you believe all that? for one letter that they mail-merge for from a template? Sadly, that's how things work here, and in 3 days i got "The LETTER" from the dean. & i won't go into the exchanges that i had in the 02 office.. ..but it wasn't pleasant.

Back to the chief's office, they are glad i've got my documents in order, take my fingerprints only to tell me the ID will be ready in 3 months!!! WTF! x2 And they insist that there is nothing that they can do about that.. "It's the process.", i'm told.

This was getting from bad to worse. I needed my ID, to get my birth certificate, to get my passport, to get an interview date, to get my visa, to get to America.. .. and here even b4 i get started these people are asking me to wait 3 months!?? Simple arithmetic told me that was if
1 process = 3 months; then,
4 processes = 3 x 4 months;
12 months!!
Clearly, this was just not going to work. But i was definitely not going to fail.

Next blog: the struggle continues,
how i got my id, birth certificate, passport, visa interview, visa (yes, those 2 are purely autonomous !) and ticket..

keep it blogged.