When It's Meant to Be...

My Situation at 8:00am on 26 September:

• No passport (stuck in immigration office for the last 2 months thanks to incompetence of people processing my residency permit)
• No valid Mozambican visa (previous visa expired while passport was stuck in aforementioned bureaucratic runaround, thus making me unable to leave the country without paying a massive fine)
• No yellow fever vaccine (requirement for entering both Brazil and Mozambique - my last one just expired last month, and of course I hadn't renewed it yet)
• No airline ticket (just a last-minute reservation with South African Airways, which I found out had been cancelled when I went to purchase my ticket)

Between 8:00am and 1:00pm, I managed to do the following:

• Work with the agent at South African Airways to recreate my cancelled reservation, miraculously maintaining the same super-cheap fare. I couldn't believe I was traveling on a same-day ticket for $750, less than we sometimes pay for tickets we purchase 3 months in advance.
• Hassle the person in charge of processing my residency permit relentlessly in an attempt to get my passport out of the immigration office. After about 20 desperate calls and texts, and a pointed intervention from my new boss, the message got through: strings were pulled, favors were called in, documents were submitted, and by lunchtime my passport was ready to be picked up in Matola.
• Marvel at the "new" visa in my passport that conveniently made me legal in the country and gave me permission to cross the border one last time before completing my residency permit process. I prefer not to know the details...
• Obtain a valid yellow fever vaccine, despite the fact that there is a 10-day window period before the immunity kicks in. All I had to do was lament to the woman at the public health clinic about how concerned I was that I wouldn't be allowed to enter Brazil, what with my last-minute trip and accompanying last-minute shot. She asked what day I was traveling. I said, "Today," and tried to look pitiful. She did some quick math on her fingers, then back-dated my shot record the requisite 10 days, simple as that.
• Pack a carry-on bag with everything necessary for a week-long trip to Rio.
• Do a slew of errands: pay the month's rent for our flat, pay the security guards, pay our maid's salary, arrange for the cats to be looked after, and reschedule all of my work obligations for the week.
• Catch a ride to the airport with Jenny and have a quick lunch.
• Convince the agent at passport control that there were no irregularities with my visas, now please-give-me-the-stamp-so-I-can-catch-the-plane.
• Successfully pass through immigration, board the flight to Joburg (had to do an overnight to get to Brazil), and marvel at the fact that I'd managed to pull together an international trip in less than 6 hours.

This was a great trip that stemmed out of not-so-great circumstances. Definitely the best money I've spent in a long time. I won't go into the details now, but I am feeling much better today than I was this time last week, that's for sure.

Thanks for all your kind thoughts - it was very nice to know you are out there.