Crazy in Limbo Land!

Special note to Albertan Immigration officer, who 18 years ago interviewed Douglas & I together and seperately: this Sunday July 12th was our 18th Wedding Anniversary. Happy Anniversary to us!

This Monday July 13th is three months without my husband & children's father. Boo hoo! Shame on you 'Immigration Canada'.

The girls and I speak with Douglas once or twice a day, every day. We no longer cry when saying goodbye - the girls loved that and used to poke fun of me all the time because we had a habit of having to say "bye, bye now" through our tears about seven or eight times before we finally hung up - rotten kids! We still say "bye" about that many times, but no tears - making progress!

The phone conversations are somewhat limited because I find the connection line is usually not the greatest-perhaps due to the "rainy season" down there? We are phoning him on his cell phone, so perhaps that has something to do with it. It certainly is not the same as speaking in person, but it is also as if he is still in close proximity because we talk about him all the time and talk to him every day.

We still sit in "Limbo Land". When will this real estate market turn around? I am fed up with trying to have this house constantly clean just in case there should be an agent who wants to show the house at the last minute. I miss Douglas' OCD approach to cleaning! We have only had three showings since Douglas left 3 months ago. The listing was about to expire, so I have taken it off the market again (as I felt it had sat for too long thus far, which had become a detriment) and have now advertised it again privately. Of course it is attractive to sell privately, as we would not have to pay the exorbitant real estate commission fees. Hindsight is 20/20 - Douglas & I are kicking ourselves because we turned down an offer of sale we had when we advertised it privately back in January. The purchaser was going through a nasty divorce and her offer was on condition of her selling her house, which was located in a small village. In light of the market conditions, we felt it would be hard for her to sell. "If we only knew then, what we know now" - she ended up selling her house very quickly, purchased one down the road from us and moved in mid April! I'm busy creating and entering the ads that will hopefully bring a potential buyer to the table.

So, what is it really like in "Limbo Land"? I look out at my back deck and miss my deck furniture that I sold last year thinking I would not be here to see the Canadian summer in light of Immigrations' threats. The girls and I are always busy and "on the run" with my family all around us as well. They are entertained every day and are just soaking up the summer holidays, even though our weather has been so horrible lately! We feel sorry for Douglas though; he has had a bit of a culture shock and of course misses us.

I got an inkling of what it must feel like last week. The girls went to my sister's house for a sleepover. So when I came home that evening it was so quiet in this house (also note that my girls are not quiet children, they are very loud and spirited)- it was a very odd feeling knowing that nobody else would be in the house until the next evening. I cannot remember when or if that has ever happened in the past. I am very rarely alone. When I finally toddled off to bed, I got very little sleep, as I was very spooked every time our Thumbelina (our Chug) would leap out of the bed and growl menacingly at the top of the stairs. I spent most of my night up and down the stairs - I don't know what I would have done if the alarms had gone off anyway, I would probably be frozen with fear. Our house is about a hundred years old, and Douglas swears there is a ghost in this house. So, of course, I then started thinking about that scenario all night! I ended up just watching season III of "Big Love", which I am addicted to, for the rest of the night. I digress - it really made me think about Douglas being without us and how very different it must be for him down there.

However, he is doing very well at the Salon. We worried about the prospect of hair styling down there, when his sister told us that haircuts are $5.00 a head! Thankfully he is leasing in a high end area where the price of services is comparable to what we charged up here in our Canadian salon. The summer season is a bit slow as the Embassy people go on holidays and make their moves abroad and new Embassy families move in. The majority of their clientele base are Ex-Pats.

His life has become very boring - home/work/home/work. He has attended the odd BBQ and nightclub and has made a few friends. The delicacy down there seems to be 'eggs and beans' - ha ha! Douglas is great with cleaning, to the point of obsession at times, but doesn't enjoy cooking, so every time we are on the phone with him in the evenings, it seems that he is again cooking 'eggs and beans'. How sad!

There were a few things that he had to get used to - traffic/driving conditions, the heat, the showers, the safety and security issues and the "manyana" attitude that prevails.

Traffic/driving conditions: I would never describe him as a "careful driver" up here, weaving in and out of traffic, so it must say something when he tells us that there appear to be no rules to the road and it is "every man for himself!". He avoids driving downtown where the craziest traffic jams exist!

He arrived during the blistering heat wave and it was very difficult to deal with, he is now used to the heat, but I would imagine the air conditioned vehicle, house and salon assist! He has also made himself get used to the cold/tepid showers. Of course, with the beautiful weather this is much easier to become used to.

He is not the greatest with directions so he is a little apprehensive about going into the "wrong neighbourhood". He still stays very close to his house for this reason. He definately lives with a heightened sense of security, which is something we would never even blink at over here.

It must have taken weeks to get paperwork sorted out for the purchase of his vehicle, drivers test etc. He had to readjust to that certain "manyana" attitude. I just hope the Immigration office in Guatemala doesn't have that same attitude!

Overall, he is very optimistic about life in El Salvador and thinks that personally and professionally it holds promise, (we are cautiously optimistic), but he is also waiting in limbo for when we arrive.

So, he still waits for us to arrive down there to spice things up! (I think I'll bring my lampshade hat).