I went to Immigration today, they had my coffee waiting for me just the way I like it. Okay, I don't go THAT often, but I think I can get a job there once I have my Visa because I'll know intimately how immigration works by then.
After having my translated documents translated again and notarized by a lawyer (so happy we know someone at the lawyer's office, I didn't have to pay!) Solidea and I returned to Immigration and sadly, got the same guy as last time. He was the only one there and we were the only one's waiting to see him. Go figure.
Right, all my documents are still old according to him. It is old after 3 months unless specifically written on the document that it is good for 1 year. Grrrr. By the way, mom, I will be calling you today - I need some more documents.
Solidea and I took the paperwork for the extension, ran over to the school where Sor Judith is (she is the head honcho for the Sister's in San Salvador), had her write the letter for our extension, ran over to our lawyer friend, got the notarization (yes, I know that's not the Legal way to do it, but so far, so good), ran back to immigration, made a dozen photocopies of everything, ran from window to window with papers flying behind us, stuffed money into hands (no, I didn't bribe people), handed over my passport, splashed a cup of water over my face from a water station, swam the fountain in the middle of the office, stopped to stretch out a cramp in my leg, hobbled up to the last window, and finally all the documents were submitted and I had paid for them along with paying for my illegal time in El Salvador.
Now, I should get the extension in my passport tomorrow, but this still means I have to get all new documents for the Visa. Yeah, the marathon I ran today was only for the extension. Hey, at least now I know exactly what I need to do, having already done everything one or five times.
Oh yeah, and the illegal time in El Salvador? 11 days = $114. Thanks to the sob story Solidea gave the lady about me being sick and having to go home because a relative was sick, the lady took pity on me and cut the price to $57. So, a positive point, that and we actually got all the immediately necessary paperwork in today, which is rather a miracle in itself. Thanks for the prayers everyone!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Good News/Bad News
The Bad news is that we have one confirmed case of the swine flu at our school. A 4th grader tested positive yesterday. I have absolutely no contact with the 4th graders, so I'm hoping the Sister's who have classes with them don't get sick. Until then, no one can touch me. :)
On the positive side, because there was a confirmed case at the school absolutely no meetings of any kind can be held. The students can not come in to pick up their homework, the teachers can not come in for our planning session, the parents can not come in for parent-teacher conferences this Saturday. So Solidea and I asked (I'm sure you can guess) to go to the beach starting Wednesday and through the weekend. Sor Marg. Guillen didn't even hesitate, she knew we would ask, and agreed right away!!!!!!!! I'm excited. Really though, there's nothing we can do here. I'm just going to call El Tunco my second home. There, I'll be staying in my second home until July 5th. I will celebrate the 4th of July there. I need to buy a flag so I can wave it on July 4th. This independence day I am going to stand up for Independence - I'm going to stand up while surfing!
On the positive side, because there was a confirmed case at the school absolutely no meetings of any kind can be held. The students can not come in to pick up their homework, the teachers can not come in for our planning session, the parents can not come in for parent-teacher conferences this Saturday. So Solidea and I asked (I'm sure you can guess) to go to the beach starting Wednesday and through the weekend. Sor Marg. Guillen didn't even hesitate, she knew we would ask, and agreed right away!!!!!!!! I'm excited. Really though, there's nothing we can do here. I'm just going to call El Tunco my second home. There, I'll be staying in my second home until July 5th. I will celebrate the 4th of July there. I need to buy a flag so I can wave it on July 4th. This independence day I am going to stand up for Independence - I'm going to stand up while surfing!
Ruta de las Flores
Solidea and I took a tour yesterday through Ruta de las Flores. It is a road that runs through the mountains in Western El Salvador and is quite breathtaking. We stopped at a restaurant for breakfast that had a walking path filled with flowers,
(yeah, I did take this picture of the flower, and no, I don't know why it turned out so incredibly cool! But I'm not arguing)
a small village with an impressive view,
hiked to a waterfall, 
and then stopped in Juayua for a festival going on at the time. This is the only picture I took at the festival - horses with diapers to keep their poo from littering the streets. :)
While I failed to take pictures at this point, we did meet a nice artisan named Erik. He told us about another festival in Santa Ana in July. Santa Ana is close to where Sydney - other American volunteer - is, so we might just head out that way.
(yeah, I did take this picture of the flower, and no, I don't know why it turned out so incredibly cool! But I'm not arguing)
a small village with an impressive view,
hiked to a waterfall, 
and then stopped in Juayua for a festival going on at the time. This is the only picture I took at the festival - horses with diapers to keep their poo from littering the streets. :)
While I failed to take pictures at this point, we did meet a nice artisan named Erik. He told us about another festival in Santa Ana in July. Santa Ana is close to where Sydney - other American volunteer - is, so we might just head out that way.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Dancing for a Dream
I'm sorry, but I have to comment on this television show here. Bailando por un sueno, it's like Dancing with the Stars with a famous person and a professional dancer. I mention it because I love to watch Dancing with the Stars and when I discovered this show (the Sister's like to watch it, as do the students) I got really excited!
However, I am very disappointed. wow. It's just, well, really bad. I expected better from Latin America. The Latin dances are not so bad, at least, not as bad as other forms such as Hip Hop (good heavens!) and Electric!
I don't completely blame the dancers since they don't choreograph their own dances, there is a choreographer for each dance partner. Really, some terrible choreography. I wish I had a video clip to show you but I can't find any on youtube specific to El Salvador. I don't mean to say all the dances are bad, I mean, I realize the Stars are learning to dance, which is the point, but there is a difference between someone learning with faulty footwork and just really bad choreography. Really bad. Wish I had that Hip Hop dance clip. So bad.
However, I am very disappointed. wow. It's just, well, really bad. I expected better from Latin America. The Latin dances are not so bad, at least, not as bad as other forms such as Hip Hop (good heavens!) and Electric!
I don't completely blame the dancers since they don't choreograph their own dances, there is a choreographer for each dance partner. Really, some terrible choreography. I wish I had a video clip to show you but I can't find any on youtube specific to El Salvador. I don't mean to say all the dances are bad, I mean, I realize the Stars are learning to dance, which is the point, but there is a difference between someone learning with faulty footwork and just really bad choreography. Really bad. Wish I had that Hip Hop dance clip. So bad.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Teacher's Meeting
Today we had a meeting of the teachers. This is the second I have attended (missed one because I was off getting tested for my amoeba:) and I found this one about as useful as the first. What does that mean? About 3 1/2 hours of useless meeting time. But, that could just be my North American perspective. Let me describe:
The meeting is automatically 4 hours long from 8am - 12pm. Right away, that's a bad sign, and that's just how the meetings are set up. You would think, since the school is shutting down for 2 weeks that we would need a meeting, and we did discuss the school shutdown for roughly 20 minutes. After that, everything had been decided, and we moved on to forming groups, reading chapters from a book, and answering questions about those chapters regarding the Salesian Family. Sound like a class? Yeah, felt like one too. Then at the end we share the answers to our questions so everyone knows what was discussed in the entire book, which, according to the questions, is the same thing in every chapter. None of which was tied into teaching. Seemed like a time filler to me.
And that was our meeting. Oh, and then we talked about problems with the girls wearing makeup. I was desperately hot at this point and didn't have any water so I left, lay down in my room for 20 minutes, drank some water, filled a water bottle, and returned to the meeting. Guess what they were talking about at this point? Girls wearing makeup. Right.
The meeting is automatically 4 hours long from 8am - 12pm. Right away, that's a bad sign, and that's just how the meetings are set up. You would think, since the school is shutting down for 2 weeks that we would need a meeting, and we did discuss the school shutdown for roughly 20 minutes. After that, everything had been decided, and we moved on to forming groups, reading chapters from a book, and answering questions about those chapters regarding the Salesian Family. Sound like a class? Yeah, felt like one too. Then at the end we share the answers to our questions so everyone knows what was discussed in the entire book, which, according to the questions, is the same thing in every chapter. None of which was tied into teaching. Seemed like a time filler to me.
And that was our meeting. Oh, and then we talked about problems with the girls wearing makeup. I was desperately hot at this point and didn't have any water so I left, lay down in my room for 20 minutes, drank some water, filled a water bottle, and returned to the meeting. Guess what they were talking about at this point? Girls wearing makeup. Right.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Swine Flu
Egads! The school is closing for 2 weeks to help prevent the spread of Swine Flu. Our school doesn't actually have any confirmed cases of the flu and everyone that has come down with a cold recently has been shipped off to the hospital to be tested. Nobody has had anything other than a common cold.
However, a couple of the richer schools had a few students contract the flu after they took vacations in Mexico. Darn rich kids! So, the Ministry of Education decided it would be best to shut down all the schools in San Salvador (not sure if this stretches outside the city) for 2 weeks. This would be great if Soli and I could leave the school for 2 weeks, but we can't. Not part of our contract. We'll have to talk to the Sister's and see what we can negotiate. If there's stuff to be done around the school, I'll be happy to help, but if it's just busy work, I won't be so happy.
To make up the time, school will probably run 2 weeks longer into November, but it beats having school on Saturday 10 times to make up for the missed days!
On a lighter note, one of the workers here caught a mouse in the house and of the two Sister's still in the kitchen after dinner one grabbed a plastic bag for her to put the mouse in. When she dropped the mouse in the bag the other Sister ran to the other side of the room and the one who had the bag quickly backed away squirming when the worker took the bag! It was too funny! Then good ol' Sister Doracilla came along and gave the mouse a few good whacks to kill it, since nobody else would. :) I call her the no nonsense nun, always good for a laugh, I just don't always understand.
However, a couple of the richer schools had a few students contract the flu after they took vacations in Mexico. Darn rich kids! So, the Ministry of Education decided it would be best to shut down all the schools in San Salvador (not sure if this stretches outside the city) for 2 weeks. This would be great if Soli and I could leave the school for 2 weeks, but we can't. Not part of our contract. We'll have to talk to the Sister's and see what we can negotiate. If there's stuff to be done around the school, I'll be happy to help, but if it's just busy work, I won't be so happy.
To make up the time, school will probably run 2 weeks longer into November, but it beats having school on Saturday 10 times to make up for the missed days!
On a lighter note, one of the workers here caught a mouse in the house and of the two Sister's still in the kitchen after dinner one grabbed a plastic bag for her to put the mouse in. When she dropped the mouse in the bag the other Sister ran to the other side of the room and the one who had the bag quickly backed away squirming when the worker took the bag! It was too funny! Then good ol' Sister Doracilla came along and gave the mouse a few good whacks to kill it, since nobody else would. :) I call her the no nonsense nun, always good for a laugh, I just don't always understand.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Immigration
Today I went to the Embassy and to Immigration. At the Embassy I met Lidia, who had translated a few documents for me. She is a great lady and I really like her, she even told she could get me a job at her school for next year if I wanted! Pondering... Yeah, we'll see how this year goes first.
We entered, had the four documents notarized, I paid her and I paid for the notarizations. Then off to Immigration. I'm feeling pretty good at this point. I have all my documents, I have everything translated, I have all the notarizations that I need - I'm set.
No. No, I was wrong.
Immigration is a very humbling place.
WELL... the documents I had translated were not translated and notarized by a lawyer. I fail to see why this is important, but as I was told several times, it's the law. I even know the number, law #24 from some book related to Immigration I'm sure. I guess that's pretty official.
Oh, and the letters I ran all over town to get when I first got here? They're old.
No, they are from this year.
Yes, but January and February.
Yes, of this year.
Well, you'll need new ones.
(restrained silence)
Anything else I should know?
That's everything.
Yes, that is almost everything. How about these photocopies? Are they clear enough? Maybe I should put a date on them and after 3 months I'll make new ones.
So, I'm going to return with Solidea and talk to someone else. I don't think they're going to let up on having a lawyer notarize the translations, but I can deal with that. Having to get another letter from the Bishop and having another health test at the hospital are not on my list of things to do again.
And the letters are not old. I haven't taken a break from applying for a Visa. These are the same letters from the same process. It's just that I keep finding out about new rules each time I go. I suggested they put this rule about the lawyer on their list of items needed - seeing as how it's so important.
We entered, had the four documents notarized, I paid her and I paid for the notarizations. Then off to Immigration. I'm feeling pretty good at this point. I have all my documents, I have everything translated, I have all the notarizations that I need - I'm set.
No. No, I was wrong.
Immigration is a very humbling place.
WELL... the documents I had translated were not translated and notarized by a lawyer. I fail to see why this is important, but as I was told several times, it's the law. I even know the number, law #24 from some book related to Immigration I'm sure. I guess that's pretty official.
Oh, and the letters I ran all over town to get when I first got here? They're old.
No, they are from this year.
Yes, but January and February.
Yes, of this year.
Well, you'll need new ones.
(restrained silence)
Anything else I should know?
That's everything.
Yes, that is almost everything. How about these photocopies? Are they clear enough? Maybe I should put a date on them and after 3 months I'll make new ones.
So, I'm going to return with Solidea and talk to someone else. I don't think they're going to let up on having a lawyer notarize the translations, but I can deal with that. Having to get another letter from the Bishop and having another health test at the hospital are not on my list of things to do again.
And the letters are not old. I haven't taken a break from applying for a Visa. These are the same letters from the same process. It's just that I keep finding out about new rules each time I go. I suggested they put this rule about the lawyer on their list of items needed - seeing as how it's so important.
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