Thursday at the Embassy

On Thursday, April 19, the group met in the hotel lobby at 7:30 a.m. We gathered around Shiffong, and I told her that Highlands School wanted an additional teacher. Shiffong was thrilled and began using her cellphone trying to call Huini. We decided that I would meet with Huini at 8:00 on Friday morning to clarify the job description, and if she agreed to come to Birmingham, she could sign papers at that time.

The group gathered on the bus for one last group outing before we began going our separate ways. Shiffong had important business to take care of at Hanban, so she gave us the directions to get to the USA Embassy, and we went on our way with our bus driver.

We arrived at the embassy around 8:30 a.m. with our passports in hand. No cameras or cellphones were allowed. After we showed our passports to the first soldier, we saw a tall, beautiful African American woman in a suit walking toward us. She yelled to us, "You must be from NAIS!" We smiled and affirmed her suspicions! How could she tell? I said to her, "As my students would say, 'You speak American'" How odd to hear an American accent from someone other than one of our group members!

We went through another security door and this time relinquished our passports. We went through metal detectors and were finally walking down a long hall. The woman who met with us was the consulate, and she wanted to hear about the teachers we had hired. It was important for the US government to have information about the teachers prior to their asking for visas. We went through that process, and the consulate was helpful in giving suggestions for ways to make the visa application as smooth as possible for the teachers.

After our visit to the embassy, we returned back to the bus. It was the last time our group was completely together. We would be trickling out of Beijing one by one over the next couple of days.