My day started out as far from my ordinary routine as can be. I woke as early as 4 in the morning because I had to be at the Social Security Systems (SSS) office in Bacoor, Cavite, as early as possible if I wanted to beat the cut-off quota for ID applicants for the day.
Everything was going well -- my husband even offered to drive me en route to his office. We reached the SSS office at approximately 6:30 in the morning (there were quite a handful of early birds already waiting in line). After I accomplished the necessary forms and handed them to the guard on duty, we were advised (after the papers were verified) to patiently wait for our respective numbers to be called for the ID station.
As I said everything WAS going great for the better half of the morning. As soon as everyone resumed their positions in line after the requisite lunch break, an announcement was given through the PA system telling us that the system went offline and that they had to wait for the technician to arrive and fix it. The bad news was they weren't sure if it would take 1 or 2 hours to fix the problem.
So there I was waiting patiently and praying silently that they would get the system fixed before 5 p.m., otherwise we would need to go back the next day for another appointment. As I read and re-read the newspaper at least 5 times, lo and behold the system came back online. The next dilemma was if I would be included in the list of people who get to have their picture taken. You don't know how relieved and thankful I was that I got my picture taken.
Total waiting time? 9-1/2 hours
Total time for the picture taking process? 10 minutes MAX!
Lesson learned? Be prepared for anything when you have to go to a government office (a good novel should do the trick).
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