Six months, part 2

Six months ago today - October 9 - we had our appointment at the US Embassy in Guatemala for Rudy's visa. We had to leave out hotel at 6:30am with our translator and another couple and their daughter for a short but terrifying ride through Guatemala City (where stop signs and lights often seem to just be suggestions!). At the Embassy there were a lot of Guatemalans outside waiting to go in but we were able to go right in. We went into a room that had 50 or 60 folding chairs set up in rows and about 8 or 9 windows for business. Our translator handled everything and we just sat and waited. Most of the people in this room were Americans with their Guatemalan children - most young enough to be carried around in carriers. We had one of the few kids not content to just sit and wait. We were fortunate, though, to sit next to a nice Guatemalan man who was more than happy to look at animal pictures with Rudy and name them for him in Spanish (and teach Paul and I how to say them in Spanish). After waiting a while, we were called to go into a tiny room where a worker for the Embassy sat across from us, leafed through our file, and asked us maybe one question (he may have asked if we visited Rudy but I'm not sure). Then he said "oh" as if he saw something unusual or that surprised him - not a sound you want to hear at this point. But immediately after he said he was approving our application for a Visa. Not sure what the "oh" was for but it sure scared Paul and I.

Then we went back into the room and sat some more until we were called to one of the windows. At this window a nice woman asked some questions about our process and seemed very interested in what we had to say - a surprise considering she was a US Government worker and probably did the same thing day after day. The best part of talking to her was we were able to air our feelings about our agency - we had even prepared a letter ahead of time to present to them with our feelings about our agency. Once we finished here we were done and just had to wait a few more minutes for the couple we traveled with to be done. We were back in our hotel by about 10:00 or 10:30, relieved that the last big hurdle was over and we were almost on our way home. The next afternoon we received Rudy's visa and were free to finally bring him back to the US!

When we arrived back at the hotel after the Embassy appointment we were starving but it was too early for lunch so we went to get a snack from the hotel store. Rudy insisted on picking out his own bag of "titas" (Short for galletitas- meaning crackers or snacks) and ended up picking hot spicy chips. He didn't seem to have any problem eating them.