Say what?!

I had finally assembled all the necessary paperwork to apply for my temporary residence card. Hugo took a morning off work and we ventured down to the immigration office to meet with an official. After two stressful hours, we finally got the ok...all of our paperwork was approved! (Hugo had to make several trips to the little kiosk outisde the building to make photocopies of documents. Good thing that kiosk was there. It's almost like they anticipated people would need last minute assistance!) I took the documents over to the next window and the girl took my picture. I asked her how long it would be until my card was issued (mind you...I only have two months until my tourist visa expired). I waited on pins and needles until she said..."You can pick it up tomorrow if you like. It will be ready anytime after 2:00pm." No way! I tell you what...the US could learn a few things from other countries' immigration policies!

After the excitement wore off, I realized what she was saying. I would have to come back tomorrow. In the middle of the day. It is extremely difficult for Hugo to get off work. And there is no way I was going to drive anywhere by myself yet. Hugo, on the other hand, wasn't stressed. He said, "I'll birng you to my mom's house tomorrow. You can stay with her. At 2:00pm, you can call a taxi and she will ride down there with you."

Great. That means another day with Hugo's family. On Tuesday after the immigration appointment, Hugo went to work and I went to his mom's. Now, I would have to spend the day there on Wednesday too. I love Hugo's family, but imagine two days at YOUR in-law's house without your spouse. And, I can't even speak with his family. I can generally get my point across but there are only so many times I can say, "I don't understand," before feeling like a complete idiot.

Well, I survived Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday mroning. Finally, it was time to go to immigration to pick up my residence card. I was so excited! Although it is a temporary card, the woman who assisted us with the application assured us it would be good for a year. Before the year is up, I simply have to fill out the application again. I don't have to amass all the paperwork again. How exciting! Margoth (Hugo's mom) and I arrived at the office right at 2:00pm. We only had to wait a few moments before my turn. The gentleman gave me my card, I signed the book syaing I picked it up, ant that was it! As I walked away, I glanced at the card...laughing at how bad the picture was. I showed it to Margoth and we both had a good laugh. We got into the taxi and were home in less than an hour. How efficient!

When we got back to the house, I got my card out to put in my wallet. I looked a bit closer. You know, make sure my name is spelled right. As I was putting it away, I noticed it had a date of September 20, 2010 on it. I didn't understand the Spanish word above the date so I asked Margoth what it meant. After lots of gesturing and the input of three different people, we finally concluded the word was "expiration." Expiration?! That is only three months away! My card was supposed to be good for a year!! By that time, it ws too late to go back to the office (how convenient that they close at 3:30pm). It seemed forever until Hugo came to the house and I told him the bad news. He kind of freaked out. Why was it only good for three months? Were we going to have to reapply every three months? Would we have to pay the $127 application fee every three months? Why didn't I check the card before I left? Why didn't I ask someone while I was there (yeah...because my Spanish is that good)? When would he have time to go back there to talk to someone? It wasn't a fun drive home. Neither of us was too happy.

When we got home, we noticed the water bill and the electric bill had arrived while we were gone. I stepped over them, unable to handle any more stress for the day. Hugo apparently was a glutton for punishement and promptly open them. Half-heartedly I hollered from the other room, "How much are they for?" After several minutes he quietly replied: "Electric is $24 and water is $78."

What?! Let me just take a moment to tell you a little bit about our budget. Every 15 days, Hugo comes home with $100. From that $100, we have to buy two week's groceries, pay half a month's rent, purchase phone cards, pay bus fair, buy 12 lunches for Hugo, and pay utilities. Now add $24 and $78...it does not equal the $16 a month we hav budgeted! I think the worst part was....A few days before, we got an electric bill. It was $13. Hugo thought it was a bit high (we were anticipating $6 a month). After looking a bit closer, he realized the bill was $6.50 for this month and $6.50 for a previous month. This was confusing because we had paid the previous month. After discussing it for awhile, we decided the previous tenants must have forgotten to pay a month and it was added on now. Hugo put the bill down and was ready to be done with the subject, relieved it was only $6.50 and not $13. However,when I picked it up I noticed it wasn't even our bill. We are house 82 and we had a bill for house 83. Ha!

So, when our own bill was actually $24 it stung that much more. Actually, I wasn't really sruprised. It was hgigher than I expected, but I thought it would be higher than the $6 Hugo was anticipating. We don't have the luxury of air conditioning, but we do have a fan. A luxury most families don't have. And, we use our fan every night to sleep with. Needless to say, we weren't going to sleep with the fan on that night!

As for the water...that was CRAZY high! Since I'm the one who is home all day, I felt like it was my fault. Maybe I was using too much water to do laundry. But, that couldn't be right. I mean, the clothes have to be rinsed out. Everyone must use the same amount of water to accomplish that, right? Our toilet was running a bit (you know...when the chain gets stuck and you have to jiggle the handle a little to get it out). Maybe that was it. Maybe it was running for an extended period of time and we didn't catch it. However, I don't think it ran for $78 worth of time. What were we going to do? I imagined us using paper plates that wouldn't need to be washed and only flushing the toilet every other time. The future looked very bleak.

When we went to bed last night, we were both in very bad moods. I had spent two days - bored out of my mind - at my in-law's, hadn't done laundry in three days and had a mountain to tackle, could only stay in the country for another htree months, and had gone WAY over budget on our utilities. All hope seemed to be lost.

When Hugo got out of the shower this morning (which seemed to be much shorter than usual), he announced he was going to drive instead of taking the bus. He said he ws going to go down to the water company office before work and demand to know why our bill was so high. I waited nervsoulsy for the next two and a half hours until he finally called.

The water company said we had only used THREE DOLLARS of water this month! The $75 was from the previous tenant's March bill (probably the month they were doing construction ....using water to mix concrete). My question...why the heck couldn't they put that ON the bill?! Geeze, give us a heart attack! And...not only did Hugo have time to go to the water company, he also went to immigration. The lady said everyone starts out with a three month card. If they are still here after three months, they can go get a new card that is good for a year. Apparently they don't have high hopes of people actually enjoying their time in El Salvador. What great news! Yesterday, I was ready to fling my selft off a building. Today, I'm on cloud nine! :)