Day 1: Waited for contact to get information on what's required.
Day 2. Learnt we needed a letter from the South African embassy, so spent half a day trying to locate their new office. SA embassy refused to assist until we'd registered online.
Day 3: Drove back to embassy after registering and waited 2 1/2 hours for attaché to attend to our request, only to be told that one of our reference numbers was invalid. He added that we also needed to write an affidavit declaring our intent to visit the DRC. Dashed home to fix registration reference number and write affidavit. Returned to embassy and waited an hour for the attaché and then he just drove out the gate on another errand. Waited another hour and a half for him to return to help us. An hour later (and several games of noughts and crosses on their moving boxes and skating the office on their office chairs in petty retaliation for the wait), we left the embassy with stamped and signed affidavits, copies of passports and Angolan visas and a letter in Portuguese confirming we are who our passports say we are.
Day 4: Handed all over to contact who then found out that we had to apply in person. Surprise, surprise! Spent another 2 hours missioning about town to fetch our papers and find DRC embassy. Can you believe it was 10 minutes walk from where we were staying? Handed all papers, except affidavit, over to DRC embassy. Figured Portuguese letter said what it had to say. DRC official said letter said nothing and that we need a letter saying we intend to visit the DRC. Oh! Contacted SA attaché who said that's what the affidavit is for. If only he'd made that clear to start with!
Day 5: Waited an hour for the DRC embassy to open and another hour for someone to help us, but our papers are in, our application is approved and we'll collect the visa on Friday. Went to the beach for fresh air and fun with the frisbee. Luanda is a hectic city with no green spaces for Peggy to run.
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