Della and I woke up at 2:00 AM and rushed to get ready. We
picked up Rachel at 3:00 AM and then headed down to Ahuachapán to get Samuel.
On our way to San Salvador we stopped at a gas station and I found my first
root beer in El Salvador. Getting to the police station was really confusing.
We arrived at 5:15 and there were already two people in line. We parked across
the street and Samuel told us to stay in the van until day light for safety. I
got out and joined him at 5:45 and there were about 30 people in line. Della
and Rachel waited in the van until 7:15. The police station opened at 7:30 with
about 90 people waiting in line. Once they opened the doors they squeezed us
all in a tight line to pay. Then we went over to a desk where they helped us
fill out some forms. Then sat down and played musical chairs until we got to
the end of the row. Della went in first to get her picture and finger prints
taken. After she finished she stayed in to interpret for me. The officer asked
if Della and I were brother and sister… We got through everything smoothly and
they told us we would indeed need to come back in five days to pick up our
records. We went to Mister Donut for breakfast. Then we walked next door to a
book store. I decided it would be good to organize our papers. We knew we were
missing at least one from the translator. We bought some binders but they
didn’t have the pockets in the front so I decided to return them. Then we
walked to another store and Della bought some oil pens for a mother’s day
project for the teens. Then we drove to Office Depot to get the binders and
page protectors. After that Samuel navigated us to a different translator. The
new translator said that all our documents were very poorly translated and she
would be surprised if they get accepted. She said that due to the state of our
documents she couldn’t do anything and we had to go back to our original
translator. Frustrated at the news we went to the old translator to see if she
was in her office. Parking was a challenge; I had to have someone guide me and
it took 10 minutes. There was no one there when we got to the office. We asked
the secretary and he said that the translator had gone to the U.S. He said that
there is a student that might be able to help us but he only works from 3:00
until 5:00. So Samuel called the lawyer
and she said she wouldn't be done with our documents until 4:00. So at this
point we had four hours to kill. We drove across the street to the mall and
checked the theater. I wanted to watch
Captain America but they only had it dubbed. So we ate lunch and walked around
the mall for four hours. At 3:00 we arrived at the translator’s office. The
student said he spoke English well so I did my best to explain our problem. I
apparently spoke too fast and used too many words. Bless his heart. He got
nervous and tried to send his boss an urgent email about it. He tried to scan
Della’s copy of the document I was missing but he was so nervous that he
scanned it upside down. Samuel told him to check the computer for it. He
searched and searched and finally I told him what to type and where and it was
found right off. We were all happy! He printed it and ran to the lawyer to get
it notarized. We arrived at our lawyer
at 4:30. She showed us all the papers she wrote for us and then we got back the
translations we left with her. Della and I organized all our translations and
found that we were still missing two! At this point it was too late in the day
to go back to the translator. We headed home feeling that we had accomplished a
lot today but still had a long long road ahead of us. We dropped Rachel off in
Apaneca at 8:00 PM. As I got out of the van my cell fell out of my lap and into
a puddle. The puddle had some nasty water in it but luckily my phone still
worked. I got the address of the immigration department from Hector and then we
went home. We got home at 8:30 and Lucky had dinner waiting on us. Samuel is
spending the night with us so he can be with us to help us at immigration
tomorrow. At this point I believe we would have given up if it had not been for
Samuel.
We are completely at the mercy of God.
 |
| Waiting at the police station at 5:15 AM |
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