Desert Man On Its Road

by Mamadou Diouldé Diallo (South Africa)

A leap into the unknown South Africa

FROM ADMISSION TO JOHANNESBURG One day in June 2019, just in the afternoon, I received an email from Mr Christopher Holmes saying that I am selected to participate in the English Immersion Camp, more precisely the English For Excellency ( E4E) which began on Saturday, August 03, 2019. At that point, I didn't even have my Senegalese national identity card. So, given the weather, I decided to go to my country of origin, Guinea Conakry. Hoping that there would be more or less easier than my country of residence, I went to Conakry. When I arrived, I was very well received in Dabondy, Gbessia in the maternal family where my older sister is married by a member of the family. My brother-in-law Malick is a commissioner working at the Guinean Ministry of Defense and National Security, where the passport office is certainly located. In my country of origin, I just need a birth certificate and your photos certainly. Suddenly, I thought I would get my study visa in a few days. After a few days , Malick called me to tell me that my passport had been taken out. Two days later, I scanned the biographical part of my passport and sent it to Mr Holmes so that he could urgently send me the supporting documents for my application visa... And by mistake, he sent the documents to Dakar, Senegal while I am in Guinea Conakry. So it took me another week to receive my documents. As a result, the time remaining is not enough for me to settle everything and get my study visa before August 03, 2019. I couldn't deny that I was late for Camp. I was beginning to remember the recommendations of Prophet Muhammad (" PSL "). For example, victory comes with patience and ease comes with difficulty. One Friday in July, I got up early so as not to be late for the filing of my visa documents at the South Africa Embassy in Guinea Conakry. That day, I was negatively affected by the fact that the lady at the reception refused to give my file to the people managing the embassy consulate. She considers my file to be incompressible and inadmissible. She also believed in herself that the South African Embassy in Senegal refused me the visa and I would try to apply with my Guinean passport. Quickly I understood that I would pass through a difficult path. At home in Conakry, I had only one idea, which was to give up... After a few days without results with the application visa, I decided to return to Senegal. In addition to that, I lost a lot of money in Conakry and all the procedures gave birth to a mouse. Once in Senegal, I started my visa application again in the South African Embassy in Senegal. But, what is surprising is that after 10 days, the embassy called me for an interview. I thought I was going to be given the study visa but it was a conditional interview. The lady at the reception told me that if I don't return to Guinea, she will reject the visa. But, it was very difficult to manage the decisions made by the embassies because I still lost a lot of money and they confiscated all my documents. I didn't know what I was going to do to get a new file. Mr Holmes, I could never pay him because he was there for me all the time; it was the third time he sent me supporting documents. I sent the documents to Guinea Conakry by DHL. My brother-in-law left to drop off at the embassy, everything seemed in a good mood. The problem suddenly arrived; the embassy called me for an interview in a hurry as I was travelling 3 days to reach the mountains of Guinea. I went to the embassy for the interview with no motivation... the ambassador called me to come and have the interview; she only speaks English. Automatically, I thought I would now go to South Africa to study.