A Frustrating Day

Yesterday turned out to be a frustrating day. We did get Elkin's new birth certificate but didn't get his passport. The day was made up of our interpreter continuously saying that she would be here at a certain time and then not showing up because she was busy with her other job.

In order to get a passport here you have to turn your paperwork in in the morning, stand in long lines at the bank to go back and pay for the passport and then pick up the passport in the afternoon. We finally made it to the passport office a little after 5. When we got to the office building there were guards there that said the office building has closed as part of the strike and that they had closed just a few hours before.

So yes, if our interpreter would have shown up when she was supposed to we would have the passport. The guard said the building would be open this morning but needless to say we are pretty nervous whether that will happen or not. If they are truly participating in the strike we don't see how that can happen. If it is closed today we plan to find out if we can get a passport in another city for Elkin. We aren't sure if this possible and if it is if all the other passport offices are closed because of the strike as well.

So the interpreter is supposed to show up this morning and take us down there. So hopefully 1) she shows up on time 2) she shows up sometime today 3) the passport office is open and we can drop off our paperwork and 4) the passport office is still open this afternoon so we can pick up the passport.

We'll keep you updated!