Extreme Opposites

I wonder if there is any way to determine the "age" of a country compared to other countries. For example, I would like to know the age of El Salvador compared to America. Like...is El Salvador 20 years behind America? 50 years? Sometimes I think El Salvador is the equivalent of America a hundred years ago. When I see houses without electricity and running water, farmers riding horses to town, and crops harvested by hand, I think of pioneer days. Other times, I think El Salvador is advancing by leaps and bounds. For example, most government offices have computers now! They sit right there, gathering dust, beside the typewriter and handwritten ledgers that are still the preferred method of writing and storing data.

The other day, mom sent me a package. The mail carriers here don't have trucks to zip around. They walk from neighborhood to neighborhood delivering the mail. Becuase they can't carry large packages around with them all day, I had to go to the post office to get the package myself. But first, the mail carrier had to notify me of its arrival in El Salvador. He handed me a handwritten ticket. Then, he located my name in a huge ledger and had me sign. I took my ticket to the post office and presented it to the clerk. She checked my ID, wrote my number on the ticket, and placed it amongst a huge pile of others. Then, she located my name in a second ledger and made me sign. When she finally brought out my package, she noticed someone from the post office had written on it that I owed an additional $2. I paid the fee and was ready to leave. But first, she had to write me a receipt (which I also had to sign) for the $2 I had paid. Another example of "technology" at it's finest...I had to get a NIT (similar to Social Security) card. After I had filled out the several forms they requested, they took my information over to the typewriter, inserted a blank piece of cardstock, and made my card. Then, they wrote my information in a massive ledger. I sure hope that person had good penmanship!

On the other hand...Hugo and I went to a restaurant for lunch yesterday. It is similar to KFC. However, instead of placing our order at the counter, we were seated and attended by a waiter. The waiter had something in his hand that resembled a PDA, only slightly larger. He entered our drink order into his PDA-thing and then started to take our dinner order. As we were telling him what chicken we wanted, a second waiter brought our drinks to the table and walked away. I was in awe. I'd never been served that quickly in my entire life. We finished placing our dinner order and I watched our waiter proceed to the next table. I was mesmerized by his contraption and was watching to see how quickly the other table would receive their drinks. While I was watching, a third waiter slipped a plate in front of me. It was amazing! Our waiter was still only five feet from our table. He didn't speak directly to anyone in the kitchen. He didn't have to write a ticket for the cooks. The whole experience was amazing! And go figure...the government can't give me a cardboard box without consulting ten different forms, but the chicken guy can bring me food within minutes of sitting down. Glad this country's priorities are in order!

Another example of El Salvador at it's finest: El Salvador has one of the hghtest crime rates in all Central America. Gangs charge "rent" to business owners who operate on their turf. Owners who don't pay their "rent" suffer the consequences. And, the police have full knowledge of what is happening. Bus companies (who also have to pay rent) are regularly interviewed and discuss the situation on the news. The country (the size of Massachusetts) has 21 prisons. Each was built to house 8,000 criminals. Currently, each prison has at least 25,000 prisoners. On the news the other night, a prison warden said he refused to accept more prisoners.

Hugo and I had an appointment at immigration yesterday (another fruitless attempt to secure my permanent residence...a story for another time). The building doesn't have a parking lot. There are several people who live close to the building who sell parking spots in their front lawn (similar to the state fair). However, since our appointment wasn't until 10am, all the yards were full. Hugo managed to find a spot to park on the street. There were several other cars parked there, but he managed to squeeze in between two. We were inside for several hours. When we finally left the building, there was a ticket on our windshield. Apparently, we had parked in a no parking zone. The ticket was for...get this...$57. Mind you, Hugo earns $100 every fifteen days. Hugo was frustrated and simply stuck the ticket in the glove compartment. Hugo had to work in the afternoon, so he dropped me off at hs mom's house. Margoth and I were sitting outside talking with some neighbors later in the afternoon. One of them pointed to our car and said, "Where are your license plates?" I was shocked! They were gone! Both of them! I pulled out the parking ticket and sure enough, the police had taken them. The ticket said we had 5 days to pay the fine. If we paid the fine, we would get the plates back. What the heck?! Within 5 blocks of our no parking zone, there were probably 10 drug deals and 20 notifications of "rent" during the time we were in the immigration building. Really...was our car that offensive? And did it really warrant such a high fine?!