Begin With the End in Mind Sprinkled With Perseverance

Begin with the End in Mind Sprinkled with Perseverance 

Again, another character building day in Jeddah! I just wanted to pay the required fee to obtain Glenn’s visa . . . . . . The documents are all in order, I just want to pay.

Ø 9:00 - leave school go to the 1^st bank, it doesn’t open until 9:30

Ø 2^nd bank – sorry we have only been open for two days and don’t accept cash (What???? J)

Ø 3^rd bank – banker man tries to help three times, sorry it’s not working

Ø 4^th bank – we no longer carry visa payment service

Ø 5^th bank – tried to give me a Visa Charge card. Then when I was able to explain what I wanted I was told, “Sorry you have to have an account here.”

      “I’ll open an account.”

“Do you have a post office box number?”

“No.”

Ø 6^th bank – was actually the 3^rd bank on a re-run. I waited; they served me coffee and water, I waited, waited and then left because their system wasn’t working.

Ø 7^th bank – Omar my driver went to his bank and was going to get the visa for me. Not working at his bank either.

Ø Foreign Affairs office – sorry we can’t accept your money, this is a banking issue.

Ø Before I went to the 8^th bank, I called and was assured the system was now working.

Ø Drive to the bank – opps, not working yet. I find out the whole system has been down for three days now.

Ø 9^th bank – I walk a couple of km. off the compound (good exercise and blows off built up steam)

Ø 5:00 PM - Hallas (Enough/Finished in Arabic) I remembered to push the right buttons and I now have the paper to take back to the Foreign Affairs office tomorrow! Yahoooooooo!

If it takes this much effort to get into the country, how much does it take when we leave? Humm, I’ll think on that another time.