All For One Phone Call

I checked online a few days ago and saw that my husband's visa interview had already been scheduled. We didn't have to wait nearly as long as we thought for the appointment. In fact, the interview was scheduled during the upcoming seminar in Thailand where my husband will present an ethnomusicology paper along with an SIL ethnomusicologist. We had thought that the interview shirly wouldn't be soon enough to conflict with that.

The US Embassy website shows the number to call for rescheduling immigrant visa appointments, a nice 1-909 number that charges $.98/minue. They apparently don't give the option of rescheduling online for immigrant visa appointments. Our only option was to call that number.

My husband, who had gone to the province for a team meeting, traveled back to Manila the next night, thinking that he could call from here because the center in the province don’t have a phone line (everyone has cell phones anyway). But after arriving in Manila, he tried and tried to call, but only got a strange beeping noise.

Then I searched online again and read in a different part of the US Embassy website that the number only works with a PLDT landline or SMART cell phone. The landline we used was Bayantel. My husband then tried calling with his SMART cell phone after buying what we hoped would be a large enough load to make the call, but only got the strange beeping noise.

The next day, we went to a mall hoping to find a place to make the call, or someone who could explain why his cell phone wasn’t getting through. We tried both options, but neither worked, though the cell phone started saying “cannot be completed as dialed” and “invalid pin” instead of just beeping at us.

On the third day, my husband remembered a friend, one of our “ninangs,” with a PLDT phone line, and was finally able to call and get his appointment rescheduled, actually from the home of his friend's friend, who also has PLDT. Though the call took a long time, she insisted that we don't need to pay her for it. Then my husband's friend and his friend’s friend, who happens to be an owner of The Old Spaghetti House, drove us to the Old Spaghetti House. Ninang took us to lunch there while her friend had a Bible study with the workers. We had a great afternoon and a good conversation.

My husband's upcoming visa interview means that I must go home soon. Because the purpose of the visa, as I was told, it to unite families, we have to be separated before we can be united. The visa probably wouldn't be issued if I were to stay here and wait for my husband.