Disappointment

After the crazy trip to Aninha’s village with the social worker from the Social Welfare Office, I had high hopes entering their office the following day. I sat down in front of the desk that I had was becoming very familiar with because of our many visits to this same office at Social Welfare. We sat and waited patiently for Adolpho to come in and continue to help us with the process that we had started of getting a little girl’s passport. As we waited the other employees in the office told us about a little girl that had been abandon and needed a place. They wanted me to say that we would take her in, but I knew that this was ultimately Pieter and Rika’s decision, on whether or not we had the room for another child.

After much time had passed, he finally sauntered into the office and takes a seat in front of us. I’m sure that he could tell that we were anxious to receive whatever it was that he had to give us in order to be on our way to getting the girl’s passport.

After all, he had made this promise that we needed a birth certificate. When we got the birth certificate he said it was not enough, that we now needed documented sources stating Aninha’s condition when she was taken from the streets. He also said we needed permission from her father who had already claimed to abandon her (making her property of the social welfare office who ultimately had to give permission). It all just didn’t make a lot of since, but we were relentless in our pursuit and travel to her village to meet with the officials and other people who had taken care of her. The social worker heard first hand from these people of how Aninha was before she had come to the baby house. He also heard first hand from the father that he gave his permission for any medical treatment that his little girl, who he no longer had any ties to, needed to receive in Mozambique of South Africa. We had jumped through every hoop and now were ready to receive the document saying that she had the Social Welfare Office’s permission to receive a passport and the ability to travel to an Ear Specialist in South Africa.

Sitting across the desk fro Adolpho, it was obvious that he was not yet done with his attempt to work bribe money out of us. He told us we had to take her to a doctor in Mozambique to look at her ears. If the doctor gave permission to travel to South Africa, then she would be able to go. I pulled her many medical records from her file, which I had in my bag, and showed him the repeated visits to the doctor with no results of her ears improving. I asked him if he needed anymore proof that the doctor was unable to fix her ears. He told me that I had to have an official letter signed from her doctor.

I was very frustrated with this man, who claimed to do his job in order to help children. It would be very easy for him to sit and write this short paragraph of a letter, sign his name to it, and send us on our way to get Aninha’s passport. He however sat across the desk from me with a smug look on his face, waiting for my response.

I looked at Luis and then at Adolpho and said, “We sit here in your office and the others here in this office say that there is an emergency case and a little girl needs a place to live. You want us to continue to help, by taking in more and more children. We love to help in this way, but we have a little girl who already lives in our house, and she has an emergency of her own, and it is that she is going to be deaf if we don’t get her to the doctor in South Africa. When are you going to start helping us take care of the children that we already have in our house?”

Adolpho sat across the desk from me and hung his head. It was obvious that Luis’ translation of my message had been a heavy blow to this man. He sat speechless and realized that he had no response to my question. He finally raised his head and called his supervisor over to the desk. I believe that he explained what our situation was, and that he didn’t know what to do next.

I asked his supervisor if I could have a list of everything that needed to be done in order to get a passport for this little girl.

Without understanding a word that she said, it was obvious in her tone that she was upset with me and insulted. It was also clear that there was no list of what had to be done.

I asked her if she could write me a list of what needs to be done in order to accomplish this task, because it seems to me that there is no procedure of how to go about accomplishing this task.
Her reply was short and to the point, “no.”

I told her, that I was told all I needed was a birth certificate and returned with it in my hand, but it wasn’t enough. I told her we had traveled with Adolpho to meet the people in Aninha’s village because it was said that we only need her story and permission from her father, we had done that, but now that wasn’t enough. I told her I didn’t think that there was an end to all of the things that Adolpho was going to make us complete in order to get the Social Welfare Office’s permission. I told her I wanted to know if Adolpho knew what he was doing and if there was a rhyme and reason to everything that he was having us do, or was he just wasting our time.

Her reply was long and drawn out. I didn’t understand any of it and didn’t even ask Luis to translate. It was apparent that she was upset with me and Luis told me that she said that we were finish today and that she had asked us to leave. I stood to leave the office with nothing to show for our last three days of work. The only thing I carried with me was feelings of anger and disappointment.