03/13/2020, laelana - Ghana le ho tloha Sri Lanka

The last few days have been really unfortunate...
On Monday, I received a message from my organization in Nepal that Nepal has changed its entry requirements for German citizens. Now I can only enter with a pre-applied visa and a health certificate, which of course must be negative for Corona. Let's see how the situation develops, but that means I have to spontaneously check in Thailand if I can even enter Nepal.

On Tuesday, the next shock came. Carlotta and I accidentally looked at my passport and noticed that at the airport I was only granted a stay of 30 days, even though I applied for 60 days at the embassy. Great, so to speak, I have been in Ghana illegally for 30 days.

On Wednesday, the news came that Sri Lanka no longer allows visa on arrival for Chinese citizens and visa requirements will be made more difficult. Out of fear of not being able to enter Sri Lanka anymore, Lotti quickly applied for 2 visas for us from Germany, which were fortunately even free of charge.

On Thursday, we fortunately received confirmation for our visas, but all the news from Germany and around the world regarding the Corona virus definitely made me thoughtful. Schools are closing everywhere and borders are being closed. So I couldn't really enjoy my last few days here in Ghana because I was not sure and still am not sure how freely I can travel in the future.

Nevertheless, the last day at school was very nice, and in the last hour, we had a Gari party with my favorite class. Gari is a specialty here made from water, milk, sugar, Gari, and peanuts and it tastes incredibly delicious.

This morning I was very excited and all these Corona news drove me crazy. Then Lotti wrote to me that unfortunately she will not come to Sri Lanka with me because she is sick and not feeling well. So it seems like I have to do the trip completely alone. But in Lotti's place, I would have acted the same, especially now with the Corona virus. However, that was of course a shock for me, and I had already considered canceling the trip and flying back home because everything is going wrong at the moment, and I am constantly afraid that I won't be able to travel freely anymore. Out of panic, I even booked a flight back to Germany, and now I am sitting here at the gate and daring to fly alone to Sri Lanka. PHew, my nerves are really at their limit, and now I have a long flight ahead of me, with layovers in Rwanda and Dubai.

At the visa control, I was first taken to a separate room because of my expired visa. I was honestly quite worried because I had no idea what would happen to me... But luckily, I only had to pay a 20€ fine for my 'illegal stay' here, and the officers were very nice. Overall, though, it's quite cheeky because my visa was approved for 3 months and apparently was only valid for 30 days here... But luckily, everything turned out fine.

In any case, I am very grateful to have had Carlotta with me in the last few days, who always helped me and was there for me. I don't think I would have managed all of this without her. Originally, she was supposed to fly back on Tuesday, but now she is also flying today because she was supposed to stop over in Belgium and Belgium has closed its borders.

There are a lot of people wearing masks at the airport, and at the gate, they took samples from me to check if I have the Corona virus. I'm really curious to see how everything will continue, and I'm glad if everything works out and no more problems arise!