Your Special Day - Don't spend it there!

A government officials office, not the best place to spend your special day. Today is a special day for my family. One of us is celebrating birthday. I left home feeling excited after chorusing Happy Birthday with the rest of the family. The whole day was rolling fine until I got a phone call instructing me to go to a government official's office. Unfortunately, I got there in the noon 12:25p.m.

The period when officials have unofficially closed for the day. I had to wait patiently in the office of the assistant to the person I was looking for. While waiting there like a gentleman, his colleagues busts in and out of his office. At first, I thought they were coming in for serious official business, however I started hearing loud sounds of laughter and people giggling from his office. It was obvious that they were there exchanging banters and whiling away the time.

Then it dawned on me that I am in for a long wait. I thought of what to do without appearing rude or froward. I asked the assistant if I could send a note in to notify him that I have been waiting to see him. She objected and advised that I should just peep into his office and say "hello" so that he will know that I am around. At first, I objected because the whole idea sounded un-gentleman-like. However, when I discovered that the waiting was not coming to an end, I acted as she advised.

Unfortunately, the officer was on phone when I finally peeped in, so there was no response to my greeting. He simply continued his telephone conversation as if I never existed. Of course, I had to retreat back to the office of the assistant lest I be accused of intruding into his privacy!

After waiting for another 5minutes or more, I decided to take the bull by the horn. I fished out one of my business cards and I wrote a quick note at the back, informing him that his executive director is the one that sent me. Pronto, he jumped from his seat, abandoned the colleagues he was chatting with and came to the office of his assistant. He told me that he is attending to the issue that brought me right away.

Well that was the beginning of the second phase of my waiting. This particular phase is the one I could do nothing about. I waited until 4.00p.m before I could get out of that office. Ordinarily, I shouldn't have spent more than 15minutes to get the issue I went for resolved. I thank God that I still got what I went for without having to repeat the visit. How I dread Government offices.