Cautiously Optimistic

Yes, I am cautiously optimistic...Shortly after Douglas' arrival to El Salvador, I had received "out of the blue" an email from the owner of an "Exclusive High End Salon" in the San Benito area who wanted to connect with Douglas regarding the prospect of him leasing space at the salon. This email came about through my networking relationships developed with the friendly women of Escalon/San Benito for the past nine months. How did we ever live without the Internet? When my parents first immigrated to Canada from England, they did so essentially blind with dreams of seeing Niagara Falls from photos they had seen in books. (Now they see "The Falls" every week when crossing the border into the U.S. - I don't think they even look at them anymore!) I digress...

He was to start this Thursday, but ended up starting today! He had been to a photo shoot last week for the advertisement spot promoting his skills and clients were lined up for him today. He had a great first day! I knew he would. Douglas is not very handy at car mechanics or home repair, but one thing he is absolutely awesome with is Hair Artistry. One of the clients (a millionare) that he transformed, usually went to New York City to get her hair done. After her transformation, she said that Douglas "would be her New York City". She was ecstatic with the results! Good start I would say!

This evening I received a bulk email from the Ex-Pat mailing list that I receive every week - it was a very enthusiastic praising reference of my husband's skills and his "infectious laugh" as she had just got her hair done by him! I was ecstatic! Doesn't take much to get me happy!

In terms of the differences between Canadian and El Salvadoran salons - it seems the product range is a bit limited in El Salvador, (perhaps due to Import taxes?), so I am sending packages down to him of products from here. I would think the clients would have an interest in foreign products - I know I do! The price of services in his new salon are pretty comparable to the Canadian prices we charged, as he is in a high end salon.

For now, I am counting our blessings and angels around us.

"Crinolines" Photoshoot

It has been two weeks now since Douglas landed in El Salvador. He is quite settled now; with a nice house, car and starts leasing space in an exclusive salon in Escalon this week. Things are coming together quite nicely for him - now he just needs to network and establish his clientele again.

One thing with being apart from Douglas: I miss (or maybe not) him calling to me in the evening from the living room "Jane, come here, you have to see this". No, not that (get your heads out of the gutter! Well okay, maybe sometimes.) It's usually some gruesome TV program like "1000 Ways to Die". Now I have uninterrupted photo time on the computer.

I had a beautiful day outside for the latest photoshoot. Trinity and Avalon were my beautiful models for the day!

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.

Purchased THE TICKET.

It seems every week we have had an appointment at the Immigration office in Malton (near Toronto). Many things to sign, many arrangements to be made for Douglas' forced removal. Canadian Immigration purchased a ticket for Douglas to leave on the 13th of April - Easter Monday. The cost to us was going to be $1500.00. After I phoned the airline and discovered the ticket for that flight to be $570.00, I phoned the Immigration officer to request that we be allowed to purchase our own ticket. The first response was an unequivocal "no". I then tried to request that we be charged a lesser amount than $1500.00, as I really did not understand how they could justify charging an additional $930.00 for making an online ticket reservation! I escalated my request up to the Supervisor and managed to reason with her after some discussion. She eventually relented and allowed us to purchase our own ticket. So now the date of departure is solidified for Douglas. We have been "sitting on the edge of our seats" since the summer thinking any day now he would go, and here we are nine months later actually purchasing the departure ticket. It is a bit of a relief to be getting on with this process of transition.

Douglas is consumed with worry; about leaving us behind, setting up a new life in El Salvador, many, many things are consuming him. He cannot sleep - he tosses and turns and is absolutely exhausted. It is not in my nature to be a worrier, so I am doing my best to stear him toward focusing on the positive. My philosophy is that as long as we have our health, we have everything we need. Of course, I am going to be very sad to be apart from him and will be concerned about him while he is apart from us. I am hoping that the "apart" will not be too long.

I just need to stay behind because we still have not sold our house! If it does not sell soon, I might have to rent it out until the market turns up a bit. Most people in my neighbourhood have taken their homes off the market and are waiting for that market to increase before attempting to sell again. There is much uncertainty with job losses and the recession, but if you have a relatively secure job, the interest rates and house prices are more than attractive!

"Wordless Wednesday"

*All images captured at Valley Inn Road, Hamilton - where the Pirates used to smuggle "booze" in from the lake undetected during Prohibition. (The Canada Geese were so hungry!)

ARE YOU SITTING COMFORTABLY? Let's begin...

My first entry!

Immigration Nightmares...(the following is the "Gone With The Wind" Version of why we are moving to El Salvador for those that are interested.)

Eighteen years ago, just after attending Queens' University, I married an El Salvadoran named Douglas . We met in Banff, Alberta, @ The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, set in amongst the majestic Rockies.


Douglas had arrived in Canada about five years previous as a Refugee Claimant. He and his family were fleeing the civil war that was raging in El Salvador, and with his father being a General, they were especially at risk. However, shortly after claiming refugee status, his family made the error of travelling back to El Salvador for a brief visit and herein lies the problem. An "Exclusion Order" was placed on Douglas' file where it lay dormant for twenty-three years.


In the past twenty-three years, Douglas has accumulated quite a bit - eighteen years of marraige to a Canadian gal (me), two children, education, one business, (http://www.trinityavalonhair.webs.com/), house, cars, etc. In other words a life cemented in Canada.


Immigration Canada requested Douglas to attend an appointment in the summer of 2008. At the appointment, he was made to sign another "Exclusion Order" outlining removal from Canada. (I should note that "Removal" is a different legal term than "Deportation"). Removal allows the subject to return back to Canada after a one year term as long as the Spousal Application is processed, whereas with Deportation there is no chance of return. At the appointment, we explicity asked over and over "Does this mean he is going to be removed from Canada? Is this order going to be enforced?" We were assured over and over from the Immigration Officer that by the time it was sent out to the Toronto office, our other paperwork (Spousal Application) would have been finally processed. A week later we received a letter demanding him to report for a "Pre-Risk Removal Hearing". After dealing with Immigration for all these years, we were not surprised. Needless to say we scurried around soliciting advice from many Toronto lawyers. Instead of, (as one lawyer put it) "fight an uphill battle", we decided to embrace the circumstances we found ourselves in.



Hence, we started to unravel our Canadian lives. We put our house up for sale, moved our Salon back into the house (as it originally began) thinking it would be easier to scurry off to El Salvador, stored much of our personal memorabilia, furniture, etc. We had been told since the summertime that his forced departure would be imminent. Heck, I even sold our patio table and chairs at the end of August, thinking I would not be in Canada to see the warm weather again for quite some time, only to now wish we had something on the back deck to use. Our deck is bare now with only a lone rocking chair. We put our Christmas things into storage, only to have to battle all the bins and boxes in December to pull them out again as we found ourselves celebrating Christmas in Canada. (Interior design is very important to us, so we couldn't celebrate without our Christmas accoutrements around us!)



We have essentially been waiting for Immigration Canada to secure a fixed date for his departure. One of our lawyers commented that with Immigration Canada "the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing".


We attend every meeting that we are demanded to go to. At one of the more recent meetings in January 2009, we were met by a very rude and beligerant officer, who felt he was very important. He was, at one point, not going to allow me to be present during the meeting to discuss Douglas' future, as if somehow removing my husband from Canada had nothing to do with me and my children. What was he so upset about? Well, how dare we approach the Receptionist and ask if he was going to be much longer (after all, he was only two hours late for our appointment). It was discovered at this meeting that the previous officer had not sent Douglas' passport away to be validated with the up-to-date photos we provided. I thought, post 9/11 that it would not be possible to fly on a old, invalid passport. The officer phoned the consulate and was told it was fine. Another appointment was made for weeks later. At the next appointment in February 2009, the same officer was not able to find Douglas' passport or IDs. This is not the first time this has happened. At one point, his entire file went missing for a year. Another time I was told by an Immigration officer over the phone that my husband was living in the U.S. and had not attended his Immigration meetings, therefore there was a warrant for his arrest. I asked her if she wished to speak with him, as he was sitting right next to me! (NB: even though Douglas has paid into the Canadian Tax system for the past 23 yrs, he has not been able to have an OHIP Health card - therefore, all hospital/medical visits were paid out of our pocket). At the February 2009 meeting, the officer alluded to the fact that we must have the passport! He went out of the Interrogation room for about 15 minutes and came back with another file that contained - you guessed it - Douglas' passport. He then said that he would not be able to fly with an invalid passport! He sent us away for an hour an a half while he made some phone calls to confirm the situation. When we returned he looked around the office for a further 10 minutes to find paperwork from the El Salvadoran Consulate that he needed us to fill out. When he handed it over to us, he said "Just phone the Consulate to make sure it is the right paperwork." The next day I phoned the Consulate and was told the paperwork was fine. We filled it out and returned a week later believing that we would now have a specific date of his departure. The previous letter we had received specified that he must be out of the country by March 29th, 2009. When we arrived at the next appointment, lo and behold, the officer did not even take the paperwork! He said that he did not need it and in fact, Douglas COULD fly with an invalid passport! As Hannah Montana would say - "Sweet Niblets"! He said he would then phone me the next day to give me a date of departure - of course, no phone call was received. He did state that April 12th would be the last possible day that Douglas would be able to stay in Canada, as he was getting "flack" from his superiors for letting Douglas stay past the March 29th deadline. At the time of this posting, we have another appointment on March 24th, at which time we are both hoping for a definitive date of departure and ticket in hand.


That concludes my extremely edited version of our experience with Canadian Immigration.

Douglas is both excited and anxious to be going back in a matter of weeks to a country he has not seen for many years - one he will find has changed quite a bit I am sure. He has some much older brothers living there that he will stay with temporarily. I am awaiting the sale/closing of our house before I am able to join him there. I will continue to work until our departure. As the dates get closer and closer, loose ends are being tied, more furniture being stored, lists are being made, more arrangements and lots of research being done! Myself and our girls are trying to learn the basics of Spanish (does Chica Chica Boom Boom count?) when we have a moment to do so, but to be honest are failing quite miserably at this goal. We are all incredibly excited and looking forward to our new lives in Latin America.

Smiles & Chuckles,

Jane