Adios Canada! Hola El Salvador!

Douglas left on April 13th - Easter Monday. On the Saturday before Douglas was "removed" from Canada, we ran from Mall to Mall from morning 'til night to acquire all the things needed for the move.

The kids and I dropped him off at the airport in Toronto on Monday morning. We arrived there bright and early (6:15am) for the flight. Douglas and I were a mess in the car - it was filled with sobs, the girls were pretty strong.

We arrived at the Immigration office, as instructed. He was handed some information and then off we went to check in like all the other passengers. We had a great breakfast at the Airport - surprisingly inside a "Swiss Chalet" - I didn't know they did breakfast. It was pricey of course, beings that it was at the airport.

(Pic of Trinity and Avalon watching their Daddy in line to go through security.)

The goodbye was, of course, teary, with promises of being together again as a family in a few short months. Our departure date is all tied into the sale of our house, which has not even happened yet. My sister keeps telling me to go and buy a "St. Joseph" statue and bury it in our back garden upside down, facing the house. Apparently, he will make our house sell! I know it sounds crazy, but I think I just might do that!

His flight left at 9:25am on time.

The girls and I waited near the windows and jumped around like mad idiots, waving in the hopes that he would see us waving to him! It turns out, he didn't even see us! As I was jumping around, I reached into my pocket to discover that I had his luggage keys in there! Yikes! We went running back to the agent to have her deliver them to him.

The whole day we were reciting where we thought he was and what he was doing. I imagined that his family had met him at the airport and after 23 years it was a big happy reunion. I pictured them taking him back to their home and having a joyous celebration with lots of food and drink. Not too much to ask for. The reality was absolutely nothing like this. His brother Rudolfo & sister-in-law were unfortunately delayed in leaving La Union, so his brother William arrived at the airport to pick him up. Apparently he arrived in a vehicle that was literally falling apart. In Canada, we do not see vehicles like this. If a vehicle has even a tail light out, it would need to be fixed before being on the road or the police would pull you over. I understand this is not the case in El Salvador. The windows did not roll down, so in the stifling heat that it was on that day, Douglas was literally going out of his mind with heat frustration. They had to keep stopping to get water to try to cool themselves down. He couldn't remember it being that hot there when he was a child; apparently he arrived just before the rainy season on one of the hottest days of the year!

On the second day in El Salvador, Douglas secured a beautiful 3 bedroom house in Alta de Escalon, San Salvador, and moved in!! He is very happy with it. Escalon is a beautiful, modern part of San Salvador. It even comes with maid/laundry service!! From the pics, it looks like California. Very gorgeous and modern. This area is very different from where his brother lives. His brother lives in Atlactl, about 45 minutes to the south of Escalon. I won't go into all the gory details, so as not to get my "butt bit", but Douglas stayed at his brothers' house the very first night, and hightailed it out of there the next morning.

















(Pics of Escalon) His first week has been pretty good. It definately started out with a huge bump and has got progressively better as the days go by. He faces transportation challenges, as he is relying on cabs and his brother Rudolfo (who returned from La Union) to drive him around. He is very close to purchasing a vehicle. Apparently, you CANNOT live in this city WITHOUT a vehicle, even the poorest of the poor own a vehicle. The bus systems are not safe, most would rather walk than get on a bus. After much looking around, he has found a great vehicle and purchases his "ride" tomorrow! He has spent the week getting acclimatized to the city, getting his DUI card (National Identity Card), trying to locate a Beauty Supply Store etc. He reports that some things are the same as Canadian prices and others are very cheap. He had left his blowdryers here due to space limitations, so had to buy a new one. These are quite expensive over there - the cheapest professional one was $100.00 U.S., whereas in Canada a professional one could be found for about $70.00. He says this is strange, some things are "expensive" and other things are cheap. He is having difficulty wrapping his head around the price differences.


(Pic of the inside of Galerias Mall - close to where he is living.) There have been some difficult moments in the first week. The first few days were tearful for us all, but things are progressively getting organized and on track over there. Now he just needs to network and meet people, so he doesn't feel so isolated.