Hey guys. Welcome back to my blog.
I know that it has honestly been a minute but I am going to skip the part where I go on and on about how I would blog better and be more around and what not. Lol. Life has been happening is all and that basically is the reason for my inconsistency.
I recently completed my MBBS part II examinations as well so I am a step closer to becoming a qualified medical doctor. The results would be out anytime from now. I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best.
So let's just jump right in shall we?
There is this conference I have been planning to attend for a while now....probably around September last year. It's a World Model United Nations Conference hosted by Havard University. It's going to hold from the 14th of March till the 18th of March. I was pretty excited about this conference so I was really eager and all. I made a rough estimate of how much the conference would cost me and asked my parents if they felt up to spending money on it and they gave me a go ahead so I started my registration process and every.
We were initially about 8 from my Uni representing Nigeria in the conference but along the line 2 people stepped down so we became 6. After we had registered we were sent our prospectus. Everything seemed so perfect and beautiful and it only made me more eager. Lol. We were promised a visa waiver and so I was just thinking "Yaaaaaaaaassssssssss " part of the perks of being an ambassador. Lol. I got assigned to represent Rwanda in the conference so I went ahead to read everything about Rwanda just so I could adequately represent them.
Everything was going all well and good until the organisers sent us a mail saying that there wasn't going to be a visa waiver anymore because of the terrorist attack in Europe (France). At first I am thinking "what"? How is this possible? Blah blah blah.... fast forward to this year. We started our visa application process. We were sent the procedure for applying for the visa and our invitation letter. Everything we needed really. And so we headed to VFS global Lagos to begin our quest for the Italian shengen visa.
The fist time we went we were sent back because we didn't have our sponsors most recent statement of account. It was soooooooo annoying to say the least. My co delegates were upset and they didn't even wanna try applying again but we encouraged each other and decided to give it another shot.
We went to Lagos a second time. This time, we successfully submitted our passports for the visa. We were happy and excited. Five of the six people in the delegation are medical students so we had our part 2 exams approaching. We were just glad we could submit the passport and face the reality of our exams.
After our exams we were called to come and pick up our passports . We travelled to lagos and on getting to the embassy we received the shock of our lives! Only two of the 6 of us were granted the visa and we all had the EXACT same documents. The reason for their refusal was that they couldn't ascertain our reason for travelling.
We were shocked! None of us entertained the thought that we couldn't be granted the visa. I mean we had a letter from Havard inviting us for the conference, the Havard organisers had pulled a few strings in Rome and had gotten the minister of Foreign affairs to contact the Italian embassy here in lagos with our names to inform them about our intention to be in Rome and to ask them to grant us the visa....but of course the embassy in their infinite wisdom decided that they wanted to grant just two of the six people the visa and that the other four people could ask the two people that were granted the visa to give them the gist on how the conference went. Haha! We were furious to say the least. I mean.... what? We just couldn't wrap our heads around it.
And so we went back home to Ibadan and sent the Havard world MUN organisers a mail expressing how angry and disappointed we were that we were still rejected the visa. How they weren't doing their job well and blah blah blah. We asked for a refund of all the fees we had paid and we just wanted to move on and accept our fate. But God !
We received a call from the Italian consulate the next day after we had collected our passport with the refusal stamp (lmao) and we were asked to come back and reapply for the visa at the embassy directly this time... but that we were going to have to pay another visa fee ( awon ole) . We didn't mind, I mean the fact that they called each and every one of us personally and invited us to reapply meant that they wanted to grant us the visa right? And so we went to Lagos again for the fourth time.
We thought they had made up their minds about giving us the visa.... isn't that why they called us? So we assumed that they would just stick the visa in our passport and we would be off on our jolly way. Alas! They asked us to return on a later date to collect our passport. This was on Monday and our conference was to begin the next Monday meaning that everyone had to converge in Rome by Sunday at the latest. We told the embassy of this fact and they said not to worry. That they had everything in mind. Hmmmmm. Okay oh! So we left.
Tuesday and Wednesday passed by. Nothing! Not a word from the embassy. So we decided to call them on Thursday because they only work on week days. And if they were going to give us our passports in time for the conference then they needed to return our passport back by Friday at the latest. We were told to wait. That they had our dates in mind and they were going to call us when they were ready for us. Waawu! The chances of us attending the conference started to look bleak once more. So our head delegate wrote to Havard again and informed them of what was happening. The Harvard guys pulled a few strings again in Rome and bam! We received a call from the embassy asking us to come on Friday to collect our visa.
So we headed to lagos again for the fifth time. When we got to the embassy the Nigerian there went on about how we should be thankful to our head delegate. That if not for her they wouldn't have given us the visa. So I am thinking, the embassy never really had any intentions of giving us the visa. Why did they ask us to reapply? What was their plan? Fine. They were forced to give us the visa by the ministry of foreign affairs so they wanted to fraustrate us by giving us the passport with the visa in it on Monday or so when they knew that we wouldn't want to travel again because the conference would have already began and making plans and actually travelling would have meant arrival in Rome probably on Thursday.
Then when we reapply for another shengen visa later in life for other reasons they will hold the fact that we didn't use the last one issued to us against us. Chai! These embassy was too deep and crafty for me. At the end of the day God shamed them.
As much as they tried not to give us the visa. As much as they tried to frustrate our efforts by asking us to travel from Ibadan to lagos so many times ( risking our lives and wasting money) and asking us to pay double for the visa, God almighty still shamed them. This right here is a classic example of when Jesus says yes nobody can say no.
So I just want to say to you all that no matter what you are going through, no matter how it may seem, mo matter who is trying to frustrate your life just hang in there a little longer. God will definitely see you through because when Jesus says yes nobody on earth and in the heavens can say no.
I recently completed my MBBS part II examinations as well so I am a step closer to becoming a qualified medical doctor. The results would be out anytime from now. I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best.
So let's just jump right in shall we?
There is this conference I have been planning to attend for a while now....probably around September last year. It's a World Model United Nations Conference hosted by Havard University. It's going to hold from the 14th of March till the 18th of March. I was pretty excited about this conference so I was really eager and all. I made a rough estimate of how much the conference would cost me and asked my parents if they felt up to spending money on it and they gave me a go ahead so I started my registration process and every.
We were initially about 8 from my Uni representing Nigeria in the conference but along the line 2 people stepped down so we became 6. After we had registered we were sent our prospectus. Everything seemed so perfect and beautiful and it only made me more eager. Lol. We were promised a visa waiver and so I was just thinking "Yaaaaaaaaassssssssss " part of the perks of being an ambassador. Lol. I got assigned to represent Rwanda in the conference so I went ahead to read everything about Rwanda just so I could adequately represent them.
Everything was going all well and good until the organisers sent us a mail saying that there wasn't going to be a visa waiver anymore because of the terrorist attack in Europe (France). At first I am thinking "what"? How is this possible? Blah blah blah.... fast forward to this year. We started our visa application process. We were sent the procedure for applying for the visa and our invitation letter. Everything we needed really. And so we headed to VFS global Lagos to begin our quest for the Italian shengen visa.
The fist time we went we were sent back because we didn't have our sponsors most recent statement of account. It was soooooooo annoying to say the least. My co delegates were upset and they didn't even wanna try applying again but we encouraged each other and decided to give it another shot.
We went to Lagos a second time. This time, we successfully submitted our passports for the visa. We were happy and excited. Five of the six people in the delegation are medical students so we had our part 2 exams approaching. We were just glad we could submit the passport and face the reality of our exams.
After our exams we were called to come and pick up our passports . We travelled to lagos and on getting to the embassy we received the shock of our lives! Only two of the 6 of us were granted the visa and we all had the EXACT same documents. The reason for their refusal was that they couldn't ascertain our reason for travelling.
We were shocked! None of us entertained the thought that we couldn't be granted the visa. I mean we had a letter from Havard inviting us for the conference, the Havard organisers had pulled a few strings in Rome and had gotten the minister of Foreign affairs to contact the Italian embassy here in lagos with our names to inform them about our intention to be in Rome and to ask them to grant us the visa....but of course the embassy in their infinite wisdom decided that they wanted to grant just two of the six people the visa and that the other four people could ask the two people that were granted the visa to give them the gist on how the conference went. Haha! We were furious to say the least. I mean.... what? We just couldn't wrap our heads around it.
And so we went back home to Ibadan and sent the Havard world MUN organisers a mail expressing how angry and disappointed we were that we were still rejected the visa. How they weren't doing their job well and blah blah blah. We asked for a refund of all the fees we had paid and we just wanted to move on and accept our fate. But God !
We received a call from the Italian consulate the next day after we had collected our passport with the refusal stamp (lmao) and we were asked to come back and reapply for the visa at the embassy directly this time... but that we were going to have to pay another visa fee ( awon ole) . We didn't mind, I mean the fact that they called each and every one of us personally and invited us to reapply meant that they wanted to grant us the visa right? And so we went to Lagos again for the fourth time.
We thought they had made up their minds about giving us the visa.... isn't that why they called us? So we assumed that they would just stick the visa in our passport and we would be off on our jolly way. Alas! They asked us to return on a later date to collect our passport. This was on Monday and our conference was to begin the next Monday meaning that everyone had to converge in Rome by Sunday at the latest. We told the embassy of this fact and they said not to worry. That they had everything in mind. Hmmmmm. Okay oh! So we left.
Tuesday and Wednesday passed by. Nothing! Not a word from the embassy. So we decided to call them on Thursday because they only work on week days. And if they were going to give us our passports in time for the conference then they needed to return our passport back by Friday at the latest. We were told to wait. That they had our dates in mind and they were going to call us when they were ready for us. Waawu! The chances of us attending the conference started to look bleak once more. So our head delegate wrote to Havard again and informed them of what was happening. The Harvard guys pulled a few strings again in Rome and bam! We received a call from the embassy asking us to come on Friday to collect our visa.
So we headed to lagos again for the fifth time. When we got to the embassy the Nigerian there went on about how we should be thankful to our head delegate. That if not for her they wouldn't have given us the visa. So I am thinking, the embassy never really had any intentions of giving us the visa. Why did they ask us to reapply? What was their plan? Fine. They were forced to give us the visa by the ministry of foreign affairs so they wanted to fraustrate us by giving us the passport with the visa in it on Monday or so when they knew that we wouldn't want to travel again because the conference would have already began and making plans and actually travelling would have meant arrival in Rome probably on Thursday.
Then when we reapply for another shengen visa later in life for other reasons they will hold the fact that we didn't use the last one issued to us against us. Chai! These embassy was too deep and crafty for me. At the end of the day God shamed them.
As much as they tried not to give us the visa. As much as they tried to frustrate our efforts by asking us to travel from Ibadan to lagos so many times ( risking our lives and wasting money) and asking us to pay double for the visa, God almighty still shamed them. This right here is a classic example of when Jesus says yes nobody can say no.
So I just want to say to you all that no matter what you are going through, no matter how it may seem, mo matter who is trying to frustrate your life just hang in there a little longer. God will definitely see you through because when Jesus says yes nobody on earth and in the heavens can say no.
When life throws you lemons just smile. Pick up the lemons, plant a tree and grow some more lemons, make lemonade and sell it for some cash, use the lemon to drink some tea and just generally make good of what seems like a bad situation.
I know this post is a bit lengthy but I just needed to share my testimony and who better to share it with than you my wonderful readers.
I know this post is a bit lengthy but I just needed to share my testimony and who better to share it with than you my wonderful readers.
Gracias mi amor. Until next time.
Xoxo
Xoxo
