Tuesday, May 11, 2010

No Solution

In North American culture we are taught from childhood "no pain, no gain", "if at first you don't succeed try, try, again", or "where there's a will there's a way". All of these slogans encourage us to "be all that we can be". These are not the phrases that Uyghur children are taught. Instead people tell them over and over that there is "no solution".

It is a very defeatist attitude. Everything is viewed as to hard to even bother trying.

After running the gauntlet of visa offices for over a month, and hitting road blocks at every step I can understand why people who have been raised to think there is no hope give up before they on till the end.

I got my passport back in hand with a 50 week long visa pasted in it April 1st (no joke). So the celebration can begin.

2 comments:

Jill K said...

Oh K! What a SAGA for sure.... I can't believe all you've been through, and how fantastically you've written about it (well, I can believe that!) for this goof visa! so glad it is in hand now!!

I hope you are doing well. It's so fun to check up on you here...

Love,
jill k

Beth said...

what a story!! Applying for a visa sounds like a full-time job. You have endless patience. I hope you enjoy reading books; it sounds like you could have gotten through quite a few of them with all the waiting in offices and riding the bus that you were doing!