I didn’t get much sleep at all last night. Some nights I think about stuff the girls are sorting through and it keeps me up. Some things remain the same, regardless of country. Guess it’s called parenting. Paul wasn’t feeling well, so I didn’t want to wake him up to talk.
The morning came quickly. Today I have to sort out how to get our visas renewed for Madi, Cali, and me. After your first 90 days in the country, you can get your visa renewed in Guatemala City. After six months you have to go out of country and come back in. Last time we were here we drove to Mexico and back in a day. We had to pay encouragement dollars at the border, which we’d expected, then we drove home. It was a long very hot drive, because the shuttle drivers won’t use the air conditioning because it eats into their profit. I get that, but it makes for a sweaty ride.
One of my friends was working in the English, used bookstore. She was telling me the wage is 60Q a day. I believe that works out to less than a dollar an hour, wow. The good wage for a laborer here is 80Q but they often only make 50Q. That’s what the men in the riverbed are making for a day’s work of digging and sorting dirt and rocks. That equals to a day’s wage of $6.50. Yikes. 100Q a day is considered a better wage. I had no idea wages were that low.
But back to the visas. If you don’t renew your visa on time the fine is 10Q per passport per day. That can add up in a hurry, so it’s worth getting them renewed. There are stories of people going to the border and having to pay $800 on the spot. Don’t really want to do that. My friend at the bookstore is going to renew her visa in the city on Friday, so she said if she’s allowed, she’ll take ours in. Her husband called Immigration, and we need copies of our passports, copy of a credit card, front and back (that makes me more than a little nervous), our passports, and since we don’t have birth certificates with my name on them, we have to get a lawyer to do a letter saying we are the parents of our children, we mean it.
I went around to three lawyers to get prices. In one office the lawyer was planning to come in 20 minutes, but when I came back the lawyer had decided not to come in until Monday. The other place wanted what seemed like a lot for a notarized letter. I went back to a third option which was closed earlier when I’d checked. Her price was half of the other quote and she was actually in. I decided to wait in line for my turn. Unlike the other person, who wanted to see me in person before she gave me a quote for how much it would cost, this abogado gave me what felt like a reasonable price 150Q ($20ish). Not bad. She also wanted Paul’s name and passport number and said I should return in 30 minutes.
I called Paul’s phone, but he didn’t answer. The gym wasn’t too far away, so I went to see if he was there. He was. The pedal on his bike had broken off, so he rode my little bike home to get his passport. Kier and Madi were finishing off watching a movie at The Porch, for school. They decided to come up and meet us at the lawyer’s office, which was a couple of blocks from where they were. The lawyer called us into her office right as I was explaining to Kier how to find the office. She walked by the bottom of the street where we were, I waved to her and then went in to the office with Paul. I thought she could see which building we were going in to, but she was too far away. People who were standing along the street could see that they were confused as to where we had gone (we were waving wildly at them at the top of the street before ducking into the office), kept directing them toward the lawyers office saying, “They are in there.” Then the people in the waiting room assumed they were our kids and directed them into the lawyers office.” It was a group effort to herd the gringo children to their parents.
Meanwhile we were with the lawyer. She was reading the document we were verifying. She realized Paul didn’t have any Spanish, but he was going to be verifying that the document was true. She kept saying, “So he understands nothing that I’m saying. Absolutely nothing here.” I kept saying, “Yes, he understands nothing.” Then she said, “Ok. Do you want to tell him that this document says he’s married to you and has two children with you.” I replied, “He knows that. Can he just sign it?” Since Kier’s passport visa is not being renewed and I’m not sending it along (she came a month later), the document said that we are parents of just the two girls, has no mention of Kier. I thought it would keep everything more simple.The lawyer had the ages of 12 and 7 on the document. But then, all of a sudden Kier and Madi pop their heads into the office. The lawyer wants to know what the one is so big (mas grande). I didn’t care to explain that we have three girls and Kier’s passport isn’t due yet, yada yada, so I practically pushed the girls out the door and said wait on the street, practically caught Kier’s hair in the door. The lawyer said, “That one was big!” and I responded she’s some other girl, which she is….some other girl, who just happens to also be ours. I wasn’t trying to lie, just trying to keep it simple.
The girls thought I was being horribly rude to them, and in fairness I did shoo them out abruptly. Madi wondered why her parents were meeting with a lawyer, in a secret small dark room, which it was. She asked Kier if we were getting a secret Guatemalan divorce that we didn’t want her to know about. She has divorce on the brain because her friend at school is going through that with his parents. He’s been having divorce talks with his parents all week, what in his life will change, what will stay the same. Madi has felt sad for him. I told Madi what we were really doing and she said, “Thank goodness!” Perhaps it wasn’t a funny for me to add, “I’m not sure a Guate divorce would cancel out a Canadian marriage anyway.” They still like my humor.
Then the three of us visa renewal people had to get our pictures taken. I rode the bike to get Cali from the family’s house and then to get our pictures done. They asked if we need them in black/white or color. It’s too late to call the Immigration office, so I said to do all the pictures both ways. They thought that was weird, and said I should simply ask somebody for clarification. But clarification is never easy when dealing with a governmental agency here. I got both kinds.
We went back to the coffee shop where Madi, Paul, and Kier were having a little snack of bagels with cream cheese, croissants with ham/cheese and nutella. Everyone was happy.
We came home and Kier got a 5 gallon of water from the corner store since my regular water girl was having a long shower. Even though I told her not to run around barefoot at the family’s house, she was anyway. I found out that in keeping with the same theme of the three-milk bd cake she had on Monday, Cali did a three-conditioner shower. She thought using no shampoo, but every conditioner in the shower would give her extra beautiful and silky hair. Well, I guess being slip and slide head tomorrow at school with make the lice more likely to leave her alone and find a home where they can at least get a firm grip.
Paul got his bike pedal fixed and went for a ride. He came home and made a meal with meat that didn’t come out of a can (like tuna). It was quite yummy. Nice to have everyone home. Paul was feeling better, just hanging out. The girls had a mixed bag at school. Some had good days, others didn’t.
After Cali went to bed Paul and Kier read their books, Madi did her homework. At night people are either sleeping or we are in this livingroom together. It’s not like at home where we could all be home and in different rooms. Here when we are home, we are together. Most of the time, I enjoy it. It’s cozy, like when we take a roadtrip, only without the car. We just hang together in small spaces. Haven’t gotten claustrophobic yet.
Cali’s frog blog: Today I had lots and lots of fun. It is already one whole hour past my bedtime, so I can’t write very much. We had exams all day. There was a fire at school, well it was next door to the next door neighbor. That’s two nextdoors if you lost count. They were burning garbage, not houses. At the family’s house we made tortillas and played on the swing. They were also burning their garbage. Mom came early for me. I had to get my picture taken. When I got home a took a shower for hours, I was so dirty. But now I’m the cleanest person in the family, except Dad took one after me. Now I need to go to bed. Goodnight. P.S. I love you all very very much.