Legal!

Dear Lawful Readership,

Another major piece of this moving cross-continental thing came together this past week: Ladies and Gentleman, Grace Mendola is officially a Tanzanian 2 year residence permit visa holder: literally.



This little piece of paper, attained only after months upon months of 2 people working on my behalf, navigating cramped, packed immigration offices, paperwork requirements that could make a grown man cry, and 2 rejection letters (now said to be completely arbitrary) represents not only the next 2 years of work ahead of me in this country, (I plan to be here longer but the permit must be renewed every 2 years) but also provides a legal assurance that these past 6 months cannot be undone in a moment’s notice. Until this past Thursday, when the visa came through, I was living in the shadow of an unknown future. An uncomfortable but true reality that everything I have been working on, every major life change I have made, every Swahili word I have studied, could all be undone if the visa didn’t come through and I had to return to the States was an unpleasant thought I chose not to consider often…! I had this mental vision (self-created, not prophetic!) of a rewind button of my life being hit: running backwards through everything that’s it’s taken to get to this point – the crazy challenges disappearing, the plane ride going backwards, and then…the camera pans out and there I am back at the airport stateside, surrounded by my luggage. And yet even when I did this rather dramatic mental exercise, I was continually granted peace through God’s spirit that this visa situation would be worked out. I have seen so much confirmation in these past few months that this is the place He has me in for this time and that there is much that I can be a part of here. I’m falling more in love with this country and the possibilities ahead. It’s all very exciting and I’m eager for what’s to come.

Grace “2 Year Residence Permit Visa Holder – yeah baby!” Mendola

P.S. Kelly, this picture of how CRAZY my hair is getting is for you...if it continues, we can only IMAGINE that our early predictions of my bend towards being a hair hippie are well on pace...your crazy little m friend in Africa.