The New Phonebooks Are Here!

Well, not the phone books exactly, but if you watch Steve Martin's character in the clip above then you can understand how we feel/act when we have our new residency cards in hand.

Once we made it to immigration, today's process was s-m-o-o-t-h!  Just a quick look to verify that the new copy of our document was correct!  They weren't at all busy, so we moved through the "appointment" phase to the pay phase to the picture/thumbprint phase to the walk-out-the--door-with-our-cards-in-hand phase in about an hour.  Excellent!

These cards are good until mid-August (while they more closely review all of our documents.)  We are supposed to call mid-July to see if our paperwork has finished the final review process and if they have printed our permanent (1-year) card for 2014-15.  

All-in-all the smoothest process yet!  This time and one more under this annual renewal process and then at the end of our fifth year, the process changes to a two-year renewal with very little documentation required.  

Thanks for praying with us--prayers answered!

Early Morning

One of the best things about retirement is not needing to use an alarm clock.  Since living in El Salvado we have adjusted to the 7/11 schedule--up at 7; bed at 11.  Only on rare occasions do we need to be up early (like today when the alarm sounded at 4:15 a.m.)  As we headed to the airport at 4:40, we passed groups of people standing along the side of the road waiting for the bus.  Some of them were children!  It is a reminder of the difficult life of most Salvadorans--their everyday routine means rising in the middle of the night, walking to the bus stop and waiting in the dark.  I remember that most of my students told me they got up by 5:00 a.m. on school days.  It is no wonder that the Awana night at our church is Friday because kids have to go to bed really early on school nights.

Although we will be in the states tonight and won't see it, many of those who were waiting this morning will be dropped off at the bus stop after dark tonight.  They will walk home, eat dinner, spend a little time with their kids and then fall into bed exhausted.  All the while, most are thankful to God that they have a job, food to eat and a roof over their heads.  They are very far removed from the soccer practices, karate lessons, organized sports, school and church activities, etc.that occupy so many of the evenings of the typical American family.  Here in El Salvador, for most, necessities take all their energy, but, overall, they are happy and even content.  Can the same be said for their average American family counterparts