What a week! -part two

When Leena and I were in an internet cafe in a touristic area of Gambia we met a sharp looking man, who turned out to be a brit with Nigerian roots, named Seyi Rhodes. He told us he was going to Dakar the same day as we to catch his flight from there the next night. We thought we could share a car and maybe he could spent the evening in our center as our guest, because he had no friends or family in Dakar and no place to go. He tried to contact us in our hotel and later we tried to call him, without any results, so Leena and I left early that morning, just the two of us. We met him on the way, though, at the boarder and at some station, although we were in separate cars.When we came home, ten minutes after he walked into the center. We all drank a cup of coffee and talked. He told he’s a documentarist and he had spent a month in Nigeria and Gambia. Later when he was leaving to get a taxi to the airport, Leena and I walked him to the road nearby- and I really don’t know why we didn’t ask one of the men here in the center to come with us. After we had stopped one taxi who asked too much we thought that maybe it’s easier for him to find a cheap taxi by him self. We returned to the center and sat down and suddenly Seyi ran back into the center saying he had been robbed. Two men had taken his passport, camera and money. Babacar and the others here ran fast and tried to catch the criminals but they were long gone. Luckily Seyi wasn’t injured, despite of his finger that was dislocated or something. He was shaken up and worried about the photos he had lost with the camera. He thought that it was no problem that the passport and money were gone, because all would be sorted out at the British embassy the next morning. We called the embassy and they told us to come there in the morning. Seyi went with Babacar and others to the police station right away the same night and then came to sleep here in the center. The next morning Seyi, Leena, Babacar and I left to the police station again, which took maybe an hour and a half and after that we went to the british embassy in the center of Dakar. First the security guard didn’t let Seyi in, but then after a while he was allowed to enter. When he came out he told that he would have to fill in a paper for a new passport and search the travelling agencies to make a reservation for a flight. All this he would do without any money of his own ! We went to eat lunch and he filled in the paper which was the same he had already filled in a month earlier when applying for his passport. Then we went to the office of Virgin Nigeria airline company where we got good service ! There was a lovely woman called Monique who really took it into her heart to help Seyi. She first said that there were places only for flights that leave two days later- onSunday, but she would see what she can do. Later when we returned to the embassy Leena and I went in there too and we heard how Seyi was asking for them to help him. He explained to the woman behind the counter how he had no money and he had to rely on the help of two finnish students he had met two days ago. He didn’t shout or anything and from my point of view he wasn’t impolite. He acted like anyone else would act in that situation : stressed and a little anxious, but he wasn’t rude when he was demanding for his rights as a british citizen. The woman was very unempathetic and didn’t seem to want to help him. I almost couldn’t believe it when a man, apparently the vice counsil, came out and said that Seyi had hurt the feelings of his colleague and would have to apologise to her. He tried politely to explain that he did not mean to be impolite and that in his situation one might be a bit demanding. After all the pleas and explaining how he had lost all of his money and passport, he got an answer : ‘you can have one phonecall ‘…That’s it. They also said that without a real passport Seyi would have to find a direct flight to London. They weren’t able to make him a new passport the same day, so we had to return to our center for another night. The next day we went searcing for a flight for Seyi. We visited many airline company offices and travel agencies, but there were no places for flights leaving anyday soon-and Seyi had a new job starting on Monday. We got bad service in almost all the offices and learned that when they say they’ll call us later, they might not. In the afternoon we went to the embassy to get his new passport, but it had closed at noon-which they had forgotten to mention. Luckily the guard had the passport (or a simple paper to replace the passport) in an envelope. Then we returned to the Virgin Nigeria where Monique had managed to get Seyi a flight to Lagos the same day and from there to London the next day. She was really wondering why they had said he would have to find a direct flight, when that is nearly impossible. With a temporary passport one can change flights but can’t exit the airport. Thanks to one woman working in an airline company, Seyi was able to leave the country. The treatment he got in the embassy of his country was incredibly bad and it was at a moment when a person’s trust in humankind has already been shaken and he needs help and sympathy. In a situation where he needed money, a place to stay, a passport and emotional support he got only a little piece af paper, and even that took almost two days to make. If it had been up to the british embassy Seyi would have had to sleep on the street and eat from the trashcans. At the same time he had also problems with the insurance company not helping, with his luggage being stuck in Lagos and many other problems that he can write about himself if he wants. It was a demanding and crazy (but also interesting and educating) two days that the three of us spent trying to get one man out of this country. I can’t even remember all the places we visited and all the problems we encountered, but I remember very well how the british embassy wans’t there for him when he needed them. And I wrote this text to support Seyi in his effort to do something about it.

Mari