El Salvador

After spending an entire morning in the immigration office in Tegucigalpa, which postponed my travels by one day, I’ve finally arrived safe and sound to the NPH home in El Salvador. Wouldn’t you know that when I arrived at the bus station at 5am on Wednesday, and the woman began checking over my passport, she politely let me know that my immigration form wasn’t stapled in upon my entrance into the country, therefore I’d have to go to immigration to clear up my status in the country before they’d let me out. I recall now (just a little too late) that when I entered the country, the customs officer pulled up on his screen that I was a current resident, therefore tore up all of my immigration forms that I had filled out. I wasn’t thinking about my residency expiration date at that time. Well, it expired late August, and it didn’t even dawn on me that I no longer had legal status in the country, since they didn’t staple in my papers. Excellent.

I didn’t want to travel all through Teguc and then stand in lines all day long with my luggage. So, I decided to head to our frequented Hotel Granada 3, to get a room for the night, since there was no longer any way for me to leave that day. Well, wouldn’t you know that they don’t have a single room available at 5:30am on a Wednesday. Weird. I didn’t know that hotel actually fills up on a weekday. I was proven wrong. Luckily though, the man that I had to wake up to open the door for me, was nice enough to let me leave my bags in a storage room until I got things figured out. A taxi that was sitting right out front told me immigration opened at 7:30, and reminded me how the lines get long there very quickly, so he suggested I leave soon. Having experienced those lines, I went along with that, and decided to take off at 6am, to make sure I’d get in. When I arrived at 6:30, I was the first in line. As I sat there for a bit, in not a super nice part of town, with my laptop, passport, credit cards, etc, and I noticed that there was no sign of anybody else, I called a friend to double check the time it opens. Sure enough, it doesn’t open until 9am. Surprise surprise, the taxi driver took advantage of the trusting Gringa, and lied just so I’d get in and go with him so he could make those $6 off of me.

Eh, it worked out ok – I decided to hop in a collectivo which took me to a nearby mall, where I had a bagel sandwich and a badly needed large coffee to keep my eyes open, at none other than Dunkin Donuts.

I get back to the immigration office around 8:15, and there are about ten people in line already. Once finally let in, I fight my way through the “line” (once you’re inside, the line sort of disappears, and it’s every man/woman for themselves). After being bounced back between a couple different women, as I try to figure out who exactly I need to talk to, I was finally sent to THE woman, who helped me through the corrupt system. Once she told me I was going to have to pay a fine of over $100 just to cancel my residency, I nearly broke down – please remember that this was around noon, and I had been up since 2:30am, and was running on just a couple hours of sleep. Now, does it make sense to anybody else that once your residency expires, you have to go to immigration and cancel it? Doesn’t the “expiration” just automatically cancel your residency in the country? I guess not. Anyways, that nice woman just changed a couple of dates on a couple of papers, and bam – no $100 fine.

The postponing of my arrival to El Salvador timed things just right, so my first day here, Friday, there was a huge celebration for Dia del Niño (children’s day), so darn, we didn’t actually have to work. The employees from the office, as well as the caretakers and teachers, all put on a show for the kids, which was absolutely hilarious. Costumes, dancing, and skits. Following the show there was a soccer tournament, and lunch, complete with ice cream bars. I had just enough time to take care of some things in the office before they closed, and make it to the clinic for about an hour to chat it up with the new doctor before he took off for the weekend.