9 days and counting

I need a visa. A student visa to be able to study at CPUT. Registration is next Wednesday at 8.30am.

Today I got onto the Homw Affairs. They have had my faxed copies of my passport, Milja's passport and my acceptance letter for a month now and I haven't heard anything from them. We drove around in Cape Town trying to find the place and eventually just parked in the area I thought it was in and asked the car payment person where it was.

When we got in it didn't look promising. There were hundreds of people queuing for desks labelled Deaths and Births and Marriages. It smelt badly of B.O. It was not a place I would have liked to stand in line and queue for my turn. I asked a nearby worker where I needed to go to get a visa sorted and followed his instructions out towards the main door and up the stairs to the next floor up.

When we got there we were buzzed in, but as I began to tell my story about changin my visa, the receptionists interrupted and said that the place was a private consultancy and I would need to book a time to be seen. Not the right place.

So we headed downstairs again and turned up a the right place, signed in, went through the security turnstile and went upstairs to the second floor. We were in the right place finally. We managed to only have to wait briefly while two people were seen to and I again explained my situation. At the mention of a student visa, the ignorant secretary left me in the middle of my explanation and ran off to get some forms. She returned with a booklet to fill out and some medical forms showing I needed another chest x-ray and a check-up.

At this point I felt like just giving up. I already had a chest x-ray, in Finland, in the summer, to get my initial visa. That cost a lot. We had also be told by the South African Embassy in Helsinki that the process of changing the visa would be easy and simple - it should be seeing as it cost, refundable on entrance to CPUT, €1100 to get my visa sorted.

I came home and talked to Minna, Heikki and Raija about the situation to see what I should do. In the end I went to the hospital in Constantiaberg with Milja to get my x-ray (R350 / £25). Turns out I am fine, I thankfully have a "normal size heart" :) We then met Minna to get some bed linen, and Milja and I have just been to the doctor's clinic here in Hout Bay to schedule an appointment for 18:45 when I will have a check-up (about R250 / £18).

Even after doing all this, checking if I am well enough, filling in yet another form, it might not be able to study. I have only 9 days before I go to CPUT to register, and I need that student visa with me. This is Africa, it might take weeks.

Dan | 18:08
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