It always is... we have the children's theater festival in October each year...and Ale and I like to go to as many plays as we can (usually, 2 per weekend), so that increases our "fun" spending...it's not that bad, $3/person this year...still, it's about $24...good thing they don't sell/allow food and beverages!)

Niece sent me a text message yesterday:

Auntie, would you consider giving me a 2nd chace with letting me use the boom boom? I realize now what an important tool it is. I promise I will not fail you again.

So, starting tomorrow, she'll be picking up Ale at school...we'll see how that goes. Whe knows me, so she knows I'm "hard" and wouldn't hesitate to rescind our deal if she fails again (all she has to do is go pick up Ale and make sure the car is there at 5:00pm in case I want to use it!)

She's also making arrangements to try to continue her studies (difficult, since she can't even get a certification of her grades at the university, because her dad, who was in charge of paying, because he said he didn't trust her to actually make the payments, stopped paying before the end of the semester, so now the university demands that she pay those delinquent accounts before releasing any documentation!)...

no particular reason....today, for example, I don't feel I've accomplished anything (although I've done a lot of things, but they just seem so irrelevant...)

((sigh))

...there's a circus in town, and Ale wanted to go. I first told her I didn't think we could make it ($$), but then got an unexpected translation job, so I decided to surprise her...I didn't tell her until it was actually time to go there...I got us some tickets that while not the most expensive ones, were also not the cheapest ones (mainly because children were $10 no matter where they sat, so the difference would be only in my ticket's price), and took out $30 for "spending money".... I'm happy to report we spent "only" $20!! ...
The part that really made it all worthwhile was Ale's essay (I always look over the work she has done in school)...
"There once was a little girl who wanted to go to the circus, but her mom said no. But then, one day,they went to Tihany (the name of the circus), and it was a wonderful day".

So, it was a spendy day, by our standards, but if she feels it was important enough to write about it at school...

That's my current monthly average...I need to go higher if I am to make my "steps to freedom" work according to plan...

Particularly because the car is making THAT noise.... from previous cars I learned to detect what it is...have no idea what the name is in English, but the last time they fixed that it cost about $200 (on the previous car, 2 year ago!) ...so, next translation payday, Little Boom Boom goes to the workshop! ((sigh)) Oh, well, it'll be paid in cash!

Hmmm....cellphone company #1 is offering $0.01/minute calls for up to 5 "frequent" numbers...If I switched, I could put the office cellphones on that plan (4) and add sis....If I did decide to go with a contract ::shudder::, they have them starting at $5/month...then calls to office cellphones would be free (since I would be contracting it through the office's acct exec, and would be in the embas sy's plan)...then I could add sis and niece on the $0.01 thing...I'd still have 3 slots....best friend? would have to find out if she uses that company, but definetely a possibility...

hmmmmm....I guess I have until next Tuesday to decide (sales exec comes every Tuesday)

Luckily, I'm not the one standing in the rain right now!

Nephew. Yep, the one at the rehab center. He went to the psychiatric hospital for check up (he's bipolar) and apparently said something that made the doctor afraid he might be suicidal, so they admitted him for a psych evaluation (about 15 days)...Apparently, there's more to it than just the ADHD/bipolar/drug use damage ...he's being seen by the chief doctor there, because his case has the other doctors "stumped"...never good to have your doctor say that!...
Since it's a national hospital, sis will only have to pay $20 per month (regardless of whether he has to stay for treatment or if he's released for outpatient follow up)...but today they called her because, it being a national hospital, there are some medicines that they just don't have in stock ....so, sis asked me to call around and quote the medicine...the cheapest drugstore I found has them for $85 for a pack of 28...I sure hope he only has to take 1 pill/day!...
Oh, and while sis was at the psych hospital in an interview with the doctor, which took about 4 hours, her (company) car was burglarized....they stole the cd player console (she had the faceplate, according to company policy), and while doing that, they damaged the air conditioning, as well...which you really can't live without in rainy season if you do a lot of driving, as cars tend to get foggy in our kind of weather...((sigh))...they also took her cd collection (since she spends most of her time in the car, she kept it there, as opposed to at home)...Oh, and they also took $70 worth of merchandise she had (she's selling beauty products to supplement her income)...at least, those were just some orders she had to deliver ....if she had had the whole lot with her it would have been closer to $500!
Oh, and there's still no answer on her salary increase from the company. She asked for it in May, when they asked her to take over her former colleague's accounts, and they promised her they'd give her an answer before the end of July (as she says, if the answer is No, at least have the decency to say it!)...

So, it doesn't really impact me directly, but it does, in a way...

the rural "basic basket" has increased by 30%...ouch!
I think my family is doing fine because we have managed to maitain our grocery shopping at $80-$100/week...we could go lower if we were willing to eat only rice and beans...but, again...what about the people that were ALREADY eating just rice and beans?...What about the family of 6 that eats only 2x day, and that shares 4 eggs between all 6?...what are THEY going to do??
There was an article on the paper about this family, specifically, that there were 2 baby twins so malnourished they were taken by an org that takes in kids under 2 and "cures" them of malnourishment, then gives the kids back to the families...and how these twins had been out of the org for less a year and were already malnourished again!...no surprise, really!...and that the mother was afraid to bring them back to the org for fear of having the authorities take away the children...

The Dress...the typical volcaneña dress I bought for Ale last year was "lost"...I arrived early enough to still catch Nanny at home (sis hadn't arrived home yet), and I had her look in all the weird places in which she generally stores things that are not in use...sure enough, there was the dress, which was bought just a bit larger than needed to be last year, so that it could still be used THIS year! HA! ...now, I do need new shoes to go with it! (last year's fit just barely, and hurt Ale when she walks...and, this year, they're DANCING!)...so, off to the handicrafts market I go (next weekend)
I'll take pictures of her in it and post them!

Well, things aren't going as planned, in that I haven't been able to make the payments I had estimated/ save as much as I wanted...(car maintenance, medical bills)..but I still think it's doable -it's only been 2 months!...and at least I got both the house fund account and the "tax" account set up...so that is progress...Also, what I did was more of an average, so that, in the end, things might still work out...(I can use a larger portion of the Xmas bonus for this, for example)...if all else fails, I'll aim to be debt free by:
Xmas of the year I turn 40 (so, December instead of July 09), or, worst case scenario: before Ale turns 10! - so, June 2010!!)

The dream is alive!!!

or, should I say, Niece and MY car??
...for clarification, I mean...
back when she finished highschool, I was paying transportation from school to home for Ale... since Niece was going to start going to the university and this posed a logistical difficulty for her and my sis (classes at Uni NOT being built around parents' workschedules!), I decided (nobody asked) that it was a great win-win-win-win (me, sis, niece, and even Ale) if I left the car at home after dropping Ale off at school, so that Niece could go to her classes, provided she choose her schedules in such a way that she could always (or at least 98% of the time!) go pick up Ale between 2:45 and 3:15pm...Also, I was to be given a copy of the schedule so I knew which days she had classes after 5pm, so I would know the car wouldn't be available on those days, and so I could plan my needs around it...Well, Niece has since stopped going to the university (no, she didn't finish, but sis had warned her she would only pay for 1 year uni, and sis' sleazy ex-hub had promised to take care of it all, and now, of course, he's not paying...that's a whole separate entry!)...

Guess what? while most days I DON'T use the car anyway, it's already happened 3 times that when I need the car after work, it's not there...and Niece just "forgot" to tell me...well, #1 she's not going to classes, #2 she's not working - or REALLY looking for a job, #3 If it's a matter where she needs the car and I have it, she DOES find a way to call and let me know....how come she cannot call and ASK if she can use the car past 5?...#4 since she's not studying or working, why can't she plan her activities for, say between 9am and 2pm? Oh, that's right, that would interfere with her sleep schedule...

I was sooo mad yesterday, I just asked her for the keys and told her to forget about the car....I'm asking for permission at work to go pick up Ale for the next 2 weeks. After that, I'll see whether it isn't more financially sound to actually re-hire transportation (sis does give her some gas money, but let's remember there's more to keeping a car "drivable" than just gas!...and those bills are "all mine"!...)

Yes, there's more to it than just the car issue...but, no, I don't see why I have to make sacrifices to accomodate her way of life or her schedule...

Every new transaction I have signed up for, I've asked them to include in my netbanking profile...

the loan, the "house" programmed account, the "taxes" account...you see, this way, I could just pay the loan online and/or make transfers from my checking account into the house and tax account and, even, if the circumstances so merited, transfer money from my "taxes" account into the checking account...

Did they do it? No.

I then asked our acct exec here at work to do that for me. She took all the paperwork with her....nothing.

I called their call center (which they call "solution center")...the guy was very friendly, took all the info, I could hear him typing...then he said the accounts would appear in my profile in 24 hours...that was 2 weeks ago...still nothing...

I will call them again today, but, if that doesn't work, I'll have to GO to the bank on Saturday. (And I HATE going to the bank on Saturdays...they only work half a day, and because most people's schedules don't allow them to take care of banking matters during the week - normal business hours> 8-5, Banking hours> 9-4!!!...it's ALWAYS packed!)

Here's the Santa Ana or Ilamatepec...it's the highest in El Salvador, at 2,382 m (~7,814 feet)It's last eruption was in 2005!! GULP! ...you can see the Izalco in the background...


The Izalco, which is probably what most people think about when they think about a volcano. It's the youngest in the country- only 200 years old. ...it used to be called El Faro del Pacifico, or lighthouse of the Pacific, because the ships could see it from the ocean at night (it must have been beautiful!) ...It's last eruption was in 1966 .."inexplicable" they say, one day it just stopped...I have my own theory, of course! LOL! - you see, they built a hotel on a mountain across from it, so tourists could come and stay there and watch...the volcano "inexplicably" stopped erupting about 2 weeks before the official opening... I guess he didn't want people making money off him! LOL!



So you get an idea what the country looks like:

There are 25 in El Salvador, so here are some of the most "famous" ones! LOL!

This picture was taken by a friend at the place where I used to take Ale for swim lessons...in the back, the San Salvador volcano (Quetzaltepec)

Here's another view of that volcano, with the city around it.

This one is the Chaparrastique or San Miguel Volcano.

They are both considered active volcanos!

It has been very rainy lately, and it was sooooo cloudy this morning, you could not see the volcano!...I just had to point that out to Ale...
I was translating a program on volcanos in El Salvador....I must say, I didn't quite like it, it made it seem like my country is so barren...LOL!..it probably is...we are one of the most deforested countries in Latin America...

They showed a waterfall and a piece of forest, but, since they were focusing mostly on the waterfall, it looked "rocky"...so....


Oh, well, it's part of the package for August (programs to be aired in Sept, and $$$ to be paid end of Sept/beginning of Oct)....I'm behind this time. I should have delivered the last script yesterday night, or, at the latest, today, but I still got 3 scripts to go!...

well, that is it for today...I have to take advantage of Labor Day (we are off at the Embassy, naturally, but, Ale is at school, niece is asleep and sis will soon be leaving for work, which means I have the whole morning to try to catch up with translations...but, since you know what they say about all work and no play, I called a friend and we will go to the movies around noon, so we are out just in time to go pick up Ale from school!)