I had received an email from a source who claimed to be the Personal Assistant to the President of the United States, Mr. Donald Trump. The two-paragraph email requested my presence at the white house, among other instructions to follow. However, knowing very well the increasing incidence of scam and spam I treated the email with the contempt I thought it deserved, straight into my trash.
A few days later however, I received a phone call, from an unknown number. The caller introduced himself as a Personal Assistant to the President of the United States, Mr. Donald Trump. This time I was frightened, this didn’t seem like a joke anymore. It is close to impossible for a person like me to be invited to meet the President of the United States. So, I asked the caller if everything was alright since I believed they had gotten to the wrong person. The caller insisted I was the person of interest and repeated my full name, age and other features that vividly described me.
I was asked to visit the embassy in my country for further instructions to facilitate my travel to the US and the subsequent meeting with Mr. Donald Trump. Two days later, I went to the capital city, all prepared with my passport and other supporting documents to the US embassy. On my way, I still remained skeptical but I was consoled by the fact that even if it was all a joke, my journey would have been a break from my busy schedule. I arrived in the capital by evening after a 12-hour journey, checked into a guest house whiles I waited anxiously for the following morning. The night was longer than usual as I stayed up the entire night until about 4am when my eyes began to feel heavy.
At exactly 7.30am, I left for the embassy and by 8am, I was at the gate of the US embassy guarded by people who appeared unfriendly which further increased my anxiety and fear but what was the worse that could happen. I walked up to guard smiled, greeted and asked to see the ambassador. He laughed out, it was expected because I didn’t think it was usual for any person at all to just walk up and ask to meet the ambassador.
At this point I had given up, “I was another victim of scam” I said to myself but what did someone stand to gain by deceiving me to this level. I kept my composure, reopened the earlier email from the trash, read the instructions again and remembered I had to say a code word. “vox nihili” I said in a low tone, as though I didn’t want to say it. This suddenly got the guard apologizing, after which he ushered me in and escorted me into the building through a back entrance. If this was a joke, then it was a very expensive one, I thought to myself.
I had a discussion with the ambassador and all the paper work was completed, without getting to prepare, I was on a flight that evening to the US. At the airport, I was met by a man who led me to a black SUV, took me to a shop where I got new clothes and then for dinner and later to a hotel. At this point I knew and believed this was serious. I was really going to meet the President of the United States, the most powerful man and the leader of the free world. It was a mixed feeling of joy and anxiety, since I didn’t know what it was all about.
Evening passed and morning came, the man from the airport was at my door, I got prepared and was ready to move. He drove through the streets and at some point, I saw a building that looked exactly like the White House I had always seen on TV, my heart missed a beat. Still acting like the brave person that I have always been, I kept my cool as we went through security and was given a visitor’s tag.
I was ushered into a room, where I was asked to wait until the President was ready to meet me. I waited for about 20 minutes and then a lady walks up to me and says “The President is ready to meet you”. I was visibly shaken as I followed the lady to an office which I suppose was the Oval office. She opened the door for me and whiles I walked in, I heard a voice shout “dude! dude wake up, your room is flooding.”