I met Timothy Tinat, president of ASLAN, in Istanbul at the WASLI Conference. He invited me to give a workshop at the ASLAN conference in Benin City 5-6 November. I got an email from him about 3 weeks before the conference was to take place wanting a confirmation about my ability to attend and present. This email started off a chain of events that was enlightening — and far from simple! We learned a lot about how the university operates, how difficult it is to get a visa if you are a U.S. citizen in Ghana, what kinds of questions one should ask before entering another country, etc.

I asked the Head of Department (HOD) if I could go. I was told that I would need to write a memo with a formal request that would go to through the HOD, through the Dean, to the Vice Chancellor.

I began writing this letter and, at the same time, I checked on how to obtain a visa to enter Nigeria. It took some time to work out the visa, because I am a U.S. citizen, but I was not in the U.S. The online process did not give me an option for entering Nigeria from Ghana. I sent email messages and left phone messages with the Nigerian High Commission in Accra and the U.S. I contacted the online company that handles the online application for the visa and was told to go ahead and complete the online process. I went completed the application an paid $180 for a multi-entry visa.

After hitting submit, I was given an appointment at the Nigerian consulate in Washington, D.C. on October 28. Needless to say, that was not possible, so I left phone messages and sent emails to both consulates, the one in D.C and the one in Accra. I did not receive responses and nobody answered the phone. I finally decided that I would go to the High Commission in Accra. The website said that the office is open and serves the public Monday through Friday from 10 to 2. When I got there on a Wednesday, I was told that visas are only processed on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.

Imagine my devastation after spending two hours on the road to learn that they would not process my visa. I just stood there. I finally said, I came all of the way from Winneba and I would not be able to come again on Thursday. I asked if I could please talk to someone to at least know what I would need when I was able to come back to the High Commission to get my visa. One of the kind security guards convinced another one to call someone in the consulate. He tried, but there was no answer. I just stood there. He tried again and again. He finally got through and the person agreed to see me. They said to ask for Mr. Gideon. I went in and asked for Mr. Gideon. He came out to meet with me and look at my documentation. He said that I still needed three letters – the one from the VC at the university allowing me to leave the country, a letter of invitation from the ASLAN president, and the letter of incorporation for ASLAN.

When I returned to Winneba, I was pretty certain that there was no way I would be able to get my visa in time to leave for Nigeria on 4 November. President Tinat did come through with the two letters I needed from ASLAN, but I could not get a letter from the VC by Friday. He is, after all, new in his position and administers an institution with 51,000 students on four campuses! He has important things to do and places to be. He cannot just drop everything and respond to my request.

I worked on another project on Friday morning, thinking that I would not be able to go to Nigeria the following Wednesday. I checked Facebook at about 12:30 and found a message from President Tinat saying that I needed to get to the High Commission in Accra as soon as possible because the visa would be processed, even if I did not have the letter from the VC.

It was Friday, traffic to Accra would be at its worst, and how would we get there? Frank called a taxi drive we know and he said he would take us for GHC 200.00 (about $63.00). He said he would pick us up in a half hour. An hour later I called to ask him if he was coming. He said that he was stuck in traffic, but on his way. He arrived shortly after that and off we went to Accra.

We arrived at the High Commission at 4:50 p.m., 10 minutes before the offices closed. I was led back to see Mr. Gideon. He processed my visa and we were on the way back to Winneba. We arrived home at 8:30 p.m.

Now, I had to buy my airline ticket. In the U.S. this would have been extremely expensive, but in Ghana I was able to get a ticket at a fairly reasonable rate. The next morning, Saturday, I had to go to Accra to video record the Mampong School for the Deaf Alumni meeting at the Ghana Association of the Deaf office. On the way, I asked the driver to drop me at the airport to pick up my ticket. I got the ticket and went off to record at the meeting.