Several things have come up since my last post about my trip to Grand Rapids. I am still working on the part two of that trip; however, I will like to share a little bit of the event I had today. I had received a call at 2:36 a.m. from Nigeria, which disrupted by sleep. And guess what happened? I woke up late. Not only did I wake up late, my son, Samuel went to school late, and I was late for an important meeting – a meeting with the president of my current college, Anoka Ramsey Community College (ARCC), Kent Hanson. I must confess that it was an absurd morning.

It was a little chilly morning with a downpour. I brought out the umbrella today for the first time this year. I think that spring is finally here. As we finished dressing up in a rush, I picked out two umbrellas and handed the small one to Samuel and we went to the car. I dropped him off by going into the front office to sign in and explain our reason for lateness on a “late” sign-in sheet, while he was given a pink note for his class teacher.

I hurriedly left the office afterwards to my appointment with the school president. As I drove anxiously, I thought to myself, “I have a meeting with the school president and I am late.” I pulled up in the parking lot and hurriedly moved my legs as fast as I could towards the brown building. I know where his office is but do not know specifically which door goes into his office, so I asked at the front desk and was pointed in the same direction where I knew it was. I stood for a minute and read the signs. Luckily, I read one that stated, “President’s Office.” So, I walked in.

I was greeted with a smile by the receptionist. As soon as I introduced myself, she seemed to be expecting me and welcomed me warmly. I said to her, “I am sorry, I am late.” She replied, “Not to worry,” and quickly added, “Can I have your coat?” At that point, the tension in my body melted like ice in heat and I said, “Yes, thank you as I pulled my red and grey Columbia spring coat.” She offered me a seat and went into the president’s office to announce my arrival.

By the time I arrived at President Hanson’s office, I had closed my umbrella. It closed nicely into a small pouch so I left it by the couch in the waiting area. The receptionist came back to invite me into President Hanson’s office and as I walked in, he had left his seat to usher me into a couch in the sitting area in his office. He sat in a second couch. There were two blue couches with a glass table for casual conversation in front of his work desk. The window of his office overlooked the Mississippi River. The brown desk was neatly arranged.

As I sat down with him, I apologized for my lateness and he seemed not to be bothered about that. He was just excited that I would be meeting with the board of trustees. He said, “I see that you have quite a story to tell. You will be sharing with the board of trustees and I would like to be there with you. But I wanted us to meet first.” Then he went on to say, “I understand that we have met briefly before.” So, I replied, “Yes, during the Student Government’s Mock-up Party last semester. I took a picture with you.” Then he said, “Now, I remember.” I added, “I missed you when you came to the Student Government’s meeting though. I was tutoring at the Cambridge campus.” He said, “I understand that you are quite a writer,” adding, “You even tutored” with his eyebrows up in exclamation. I said, “Yes,” and showed him a copy of my book, Imprisoned: The Travails of a Trafficked Victim that I had brought for him. He seemed pleased and said, “I will definitely read the book. Thank you.”

Surprisingly, presenting to the board of trustees will not be at the ARCC campus in Coon Rapids as I had thought. The president made me to understand that we will be going to the board’s office in St. Paul in a sixteen floors building where it occupies about four floors in the building. I could see that the president holds the board of trustees in high esteem. He offered to give me a ride to the presentation, which will be coming up next month. According to him, he doesn’t want me to get lost or have any trouble finding the place. I look forward to meeting the ARCC board of trustees to share about my trip to the White House and how Anoka Ramsey has helped me in my career.

Meanwhile, I was scheduled for a presentation on human trafficking by the Green Dot Club on Campus today. Green Dot is an organization within the campus creating awareness about domestic abuse and sexual assault on campus. There are also counsellors available for students who might have been abused or be in an abusive relationship. The club had a two series presentation this week – one was held on Tuesday and I was invited to speak about human trafficking today. You never know who is in the audience. At the end of my presentation, a student came up to me to ask for help for someone who is out in Florida. According to her, she did not want to ask in front of everybody and the victim is being held against her will by her parents. I hope we can help her before it is too late. If you pray, please, pray for safe rescue for us. It’s hard to rescue a victim from a stranger; it is even harder to rescue one from a family member.

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Bye for now, until next time.