Crushed
Yesterday ranks petty high as one of the worst days of my life.
It began early in the morning when I walked to the Belen marketplace to shoot some video of the market as shops are set up and people arive to purchase things for the day -- especially the incredible variety of foods. I was there for only a few minutes when I stopped by a police officer who was asking me many questions about my video camera that I could not understand. While we were standing there, I head a loud ruckus above and everyone looked up. Just as I did the same, two screaming cats fell off the roof above staight onto the front of my camcorder. The front lens was knocked off along with the shutter housing. Needless to say, the lens was badly damaged the housing was broken.
I doubt it as accidental. What are the odds that two fighting cats would fall fom the top of a building onto my camera? Pretty slim, I think. Bottom line is that I no longer can take vido from this trip, but it turned out that was the best thing that happened today.
Mary Isabel brought the packet that she received from the embassy including her newly issued visa that she was extremely proud of. Just as she did, in my excitement I opened the packet on the side with her name. And like her I did not notice the seal or the sticker on the other side with instructions that the envlope NOT be opened. When I finally saw it and read the words that it was to be opned only be an immigration official my heart nearly stopped. She didn´t even know it as there until I brought it to her attention. She had simply opened the packet, saw her visa, and then put it away for safekeeping.
Apparently, everything that we have done for the past year is fo nothing because her papers are no longer any good. No one told either of us anything about keeping the packet sealed, but for one mistake our plans may be ruined and lives may be changed in ways we don´t yet know.
I've tried to contact the embassy with no luck. Unfortunately, I do not have the direct email address that I used before to reach someone quickly so we face a lon wait until I return home next week to know anything. I sent a fax to the embassy, but have not received any response yet.
It took Mary all day and a phone call to a friend in Lima before she realized the gravity of her mistake. Needless to say, neither of us slept much last much and she rarely stopped crying. She even asked me to leave her because I didn´t need to be with a stupid woman. (Don´t worry -- of course, I turned down her offer.)
We had planned to bring her back to the US in early May, but we don´t think that will be possible now. It looks like I have another long stretch of trying to resolve issues with the U.S. govenment -- lots of time, lots of money, and all from 4000 miles away. There's not much I can do now until I get home.
We sure would appreciate your prayers that all of this is soon resolved in a positive way. We are both terribly frightened about our future now and we've been doing a lot of praying ourselves.
