After finishing my gym workout last night, I got a wonderful surprise.
I checked my emails on my Burberry. There was an email from Mandy
Findlater. She had received notification from the US authorities that
her application for a Green Card (permanent residence) had been
accepted.
Green Card applications are accepted every day in the USA. What was so different about this one?
In
1999, Mandy sold her unit (condominium) in Harare, Zimbabwe. She got
$10,000 US dollars on a quick sale . She got on the plane. She ended up
at San Francisco international airport. It was at the height of the
technology boom. It was and is one of the most expensive places in the
world to live. I can tell you from personal experience that $10,000
does not go far here.
Mandy went to a hotel room. She started to
look for a job. She had experience in the freight business. She found a
freight company to sponsor her. She got her work permit and went to
work.
At this moment, Mandy and I met. I was then working at a
telecom company in San Jose, California. Mandy came by on a sales call.
She did not make a sale on the call. But we hit it off as friends.
After all, we both had been "Out of Africa."
Over the yeas Mandy
worked hard. She became a top performer at her freight company. As the
years went by the painful wait for the Green Card continued. Conditions
deteriorated in her home country of Zimbabwe. She had to start send
food packages home to sustain her family. Over the years Mandy also saw
several other employees at her company get fired and lose their US work
permits.
In March of 2008, a seeming disaster happened. Mandy's
employer fired her. This was before her Green Card was issued. It
appeared that Mandy would find herself on the plane back to Zimbabwe.
My
wife and I own a small company. We were prepared to offer her a very
humble job. We were determined to do everything legally possible to
stop her deportation.
Mandy refused to let this set back stop
her. She got right back up on her feet and went out and found a great
job with another freight company.
What a glorious day it was when she got her good news!!!
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