The interview today was scheduled for 7:15, but because people had told us to get there early and because of potential for heavy traffic, we woke up at 4am and left at 5am. We got there around 6 or 6:30. The couple we are staying with took us there and waited the whole time we were there. The time spent for the interview was just a formality really– I’m not even sure why they bother when the info they ask is right in front of them and they already know they’re going to reject the petition and then that we would petition a waiver. It’s really probably just a way to trap people back in their country and make them (and their family) pay for their previous mistakes.
Anyway, we waited about 2 hours for an “interview” with a guy with no people skills nor personality that lasted a total of 5 minutes, after which he told us what our lawyer told us– that we’d have to return in 2.5 hours to “continue” the interview and talk about the waiver.
The pastors were waiting for us outside the consulate when we came out and they took us to the bonde, which is basically a trolley that circles around and shows some of the city. The bonde was so full and people were hanging off the sides as we passed over the top of the arc. It was an adventure (don’t worry, I was safe inside the bonde).
We went back, grabbed a small lunch before going to the consulate again, waiting another 45 minutes (and we were the first of only 2 cases there) for another 5 minutes in which he asked many of the same questions and then gave us papers about the waiver (which had already been put together by the lawyer, but which he wouldn’t accept saying that I had to check the check list that he’d given me (the same cover on my own process). So I went and talked to the lady in the waiting room, who is actually helpful and informational and personable and we turned the papers in to her.
We were exhausted and went back to the house after that. We snacked, I gave Audrey a bath. Cesar INSISTED that we had to unlock our iphones here at a mall about an hour to an hour and a half away. We got there and, of course, nobody knows how to do any of it. I’ll probably learn to do it myself online, and that time was wasted when we could have visited the pastor who set up this place to stay. In any case, it was tiring and tomorrow we go to Brasilia. I’m going to miss our time in Rio, but am excited to know that when we get news of our process, we’ll be coming back here.