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| Libreville, Gabon |
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| Libreville, Gabon |
The first full day in Libreville I spent with organizing the visas for
Cameroon and Nigeria. For Cameroon was absolutely unproblematic and done
within 1.5 hours. For Nigeria was a little more difficult. First I had
to wait quite long because Madame secretary had to eat her lunch just at
that moment – about 20 people waited patiently, until she finished.
Everybody knew, that this lady is the important one for getting the
visa. So, whether one is angry or not, you have to remain quiet and
polite, otherwise you already failed before you get to see the
ambassador himself…. The ambassador wanted to see a letter of
invitation, which I could not present, of course. Where should something
like this come from, the few Nigerians from Regensburg I know, might be
better not to mention at all… In any case, I tried to convince him,
that I work in tourism and I try to get into contact with other agencies
in Nigeria to bring finally the amount of tourists into Nigeria, which
this beautiful country deserves…. He apparently liked the answer, in any
case, I was allowed to fill my request form, deliver two photos and pay
the enormous sum of 50,000 CFA, about 75 euros. Whether the ambassador
is known for being eccentric or not, I do not know, but up to now I
never had to paint a colorful map with my travel itinerary for a visa.
But well, there is a first time for everything. So I copied a map from
Lonely Planet, bought some nice pens in four colors and started to
paint. Actually, I wanted to travel around only the northern part of
Nigeria, but as the ambassador was from the south, I had to plan the
itinerary in such a way, that his regions are also represented. Proudly I
presented in the afternoon my work, which was fixed to the other
documents. The next day, I went back as told at 12.00 o'clock. And there
was a wonderful, richly colored visa in my passport, and there was an
ambassador really proud of his work of the day… As I was into organizing
visas now, I just continued and went also to the embassy of Benin.
