Traveling is one of my deepest passions I developed in the years and the top priority in my bucket list. I have always wanted to travel but the pain of the process such as acquiring Visa, Plane ticket and stuff is painful, long life to the poverty my country is enjoying.
This year I decided to do all possible to visit a foreign country and get my first international traveling experience. The best way to do that was trying to attend an International conference. So I Googled for days looking for free international conferences and Moot Court Competitions (competition amongst Law students) to attend this summer. I have filled lots of application forms and I got accepted into two of them- one Moot Court Competition in Amsterdam, Netherlands and One International Youth Conference in Seliger Lake, Russia. The thing is I can only attend one of them since they both happen at the same time. So I decided to pursue the Moot court competitions since it is directly related to what I learn- the problem was it was expensive, requires extensive research and preparation for the program. So together with my friend Deborah Haddis who also got accepted we wrote a number of sponsorship letters to organizations who we believe have a strong financial capacity. Ethiopian Airlines agreed to provide us with Tickets- the rest we were still waiting. When the day comes for us to collect our Visa we went to the embassy and learnt that we were denied a Visa for the reason that” We didn’t provide Enough Financial statement and there is a higher probability that we may never come back”. Oh well we only had two weeks and left and things ingeneral weren’t looking good anyhow. So I decided to stay positive and look for options to enable me participate in Interseliger- Keep in mind when all this happens I only had Two weeks left and I had no Visa and a financial source to enable me get my ticket- so what do I do? I knock every single door including my University, Various Airlines and other Institutions I thought would enable me get ticket to Moscow. You might wonder why I don’t bother about Visa- well the thing is I was invited by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Russia and I got a special set of number that I would take to the Embassy in My country and get a free Visa. No body replied and the one who replied reject my Financial Proposal.
Thursday July 18 2013-
Things with the Visa didn’t run as smooth as I thought- I got my Visa two days before my flight and a day before the program started- the reason as the guy in the embassy tried to explain to me by yelling was they got no Internet Access and it’s a problem of my country. Oh well that day I explore every option including borrowing money from banks and people but nothing materializes (we have a long distance to travel when it comes to our banking experience BTW). So I went back to my cousin’s house and sleep being really hopeless and cursing my poverty.
Friday July 19 2013-
I slept until mid-day because I was so bored and I couldn’t stand the Idea of not to be able to travel because of 16,000 Birr which is roughly 860 USD. If I couldn’t get ticket in the next 5 hours it means I’m going to miss the chance to participate to the conference. My only hope was a friend of mine who had money to borrow me which I agreed to pay by giving my Laptop which could worth half and raising the rest of the money which I have no Idea how. The thing is his other friend took all his documents to another City and he couldn’t collect me the money.
Never lose of hope until the end…. At 2:00 Pm in the afternoon my cousin helped me collect 10,000 Birr from his Friend which was agreed my friend will have to pay him back. So I went to the ticketing office and asked the price. They say the price Just rise up sine I’m the last person to go there… Whoa! What a cursed day or so I thought…. The price went by 6000 birr which is like 300 USD. And I had to decide because I only had three hours left….So I called my other Cousin and asked her for the rest of the money… she had it. I went to pick the money from where she works and it took me an Hour and thirty minutes…. When I went to the ticketing office to book my ticket and the prices suddenly drops down to 18,000 Birr. Oh well who would hate that?! So I got my ticket and went home to pack…uhm… nothing! My flight was in 19 hours. I went out to use Internet and signup for Emirates Frequent Flyer Program. I had nothing to pack and I couldn’t sleep because I was all fired up with excitement.