The following entry I wrote in a notebook as events were unfolding. You will see the date of the entry then what I wrote.
July 29, 2010
I´m going crazy. Is this worth the trouble? I guess so. We need the money from the taxes to finish the house and live more comfortably. So I sold the van to pay for my plane ticket- supposedly to go all the way to Oakland. But lo and behold, I get to the airport and they change my flight to Tijuana- becasue my passport is expired. Thier rules are only passport as valid id to travel to the states. They don´t care if I have my CA id or BC- the passport is all they care about. Argh! Oh and the airline refused to cancel my reservation and refund me the money, so I had to take the flight. My fault they say!
So with no time to call home to advise of the situation, I left. Once I got to TJ I called but forgot about the 2hour time difference, so all I could do was leave a message.All I can say is that I felt abandoned. Me myself and I stranded at the airport in a strange city in a foreign country with barely enough money to eat with. The flight arrived at 11pm, which was too late for anyone to send me money. At least I wasn´t the only passenger to spend the night at the airport. I now sport new bruises on my hips, back and butt from the all too comfy airport chairs. I barely slept. The airport should have a special section for those travelers waiting for connections or the bus terminal to open in the morning.
At 7am I called my mom collect because I knew my few dollars would not be enough for a phone call. No help from her. She claims she has $0- can´t send me money or lend me anything. So I give her my BIL´s number to ask him to wire me some money or deposit into my bank account. I call back around 10am and the news is a cousin left So. Cal at 9am to come pick me up. Ok- sounded good. By 3pm- no show. The drive is only 3 hours, so who knows what happened. So by 7:30pm I was fainting with hunger and anxiety. I call one more time. My BIL ended up sending me moneyh. I grab a taxi with the intent to pay as soon as I get the money and get to the bus depot. You´ll never guess what happend. My id was considered an invalid identification. Had to be either a valid drivers liscense or a passport, and of course I had neither. Why? Not everyone has a DL. Makes no sense to me. The only option was to have BIL cancel the transaction and resend it in someone elses name. Ok- I was alone- no one was with me that I knew or trusted. How is this possible?
An angel just happened to be standing in front of me- the taxi driver. He offered to recieve the money in his name. Ok- I know what you are thinking- stranger danger as they say in those kid videos- but it didn´t happen like that. BIL changed the transaction to the taxi drivers name and we went back to pick up the money. Nope. Probably in the morning the change would show up in the computer- it was already 9pm and the store was about to close. As I said before- an angel stood next to me. The taxi driver offered me a place to stay the night- he lived alone with his wife. We would go back to the store at 9am to pick up the money. What wonderful people. Becasue of people like them I keep becoming more enchanted with Mexico and more resolute with my decision 7 months ago to move here.
So night turns to day- we go to the store to pick up the money and - nada. It was still in my name. WTF? Quick message to BIL- PLEASE CANCEL THE TRANS AND RESEND THE MONEY IN HIS NAME. BIL send message back- AGENCY SAYS TRANSFER IS GOOD. TRY AGAIN. SAME CODE. So we try again and still no luck. Another message to BIL- JUST CANCEL THE DAMN TRANS AND DO A NEW ONE AND HURRY PLEASE. So this is where I am now- waiting imposing on strangers who are still true angels. I have been traveling 48 hours now (I left Guanajuato at 2pm Tuesday, arrived in Guadalajara at 8pm, left at 9:30, and got to TJ at 10:30pm.)- stuck in the same place for 40. Praying to help resolve everything and help me continue my journey and thanking God for sending these angels to protect me meanwhile. I am now beginning to comprehend the trust and confidence many of my friends have in God and the Virgen Guadalupe. As soon as I am back in Guanajuato I will do something to honor them. As for the angels, the most I can do is to send some money when I get the taxes as a thank you. This situation could have easily gone in a different direction if it weren´t for the four of them. So first things first- get to my destination, get the tax money, and then send something to my angels, and then go home.
I miss my kids and hubby. I pray that the little guy is being a good boy and that DD is helping like she said she would.
July 30
Finally! After two days, I am now waiting for the Greyhound bus to get here. I now have two new friends- the taxi driver and his wife. The nicest people I will ever meet. They took me under their wings for two days, fed me, and gave me a place to sleep. The wife was grateful for some female company. She doesn´t work. Her husband works the night shift driving taxis from the airport. It was wonderful to chat with her. She hails from Ciapas. He hails from Sinaloa. She is skinny, not too much, but slightly smaller than I am now, and my height. He is slightly taller than she is and heavy set- sort of like dh had been a few years ago. But both of them have good souls. Pray that God watches over them always. We exchanged information. I will send him some extra money once I get it- as a thank you. And I told them they are welcome to come and visit us in GTO whenever they want to!
I marvel at the daily occurences in my life. I am gettin gused to taking it one day at a time. Its an incredible adventure this thing called life. But I doo look to the future every now and then. I can´t wait to get home to my family.
Since I wrote this I had a few more crazy things happen to me while away from my family. I ended up spending a month sleeping on the couch in my BIL´s place while I waited to be able to do my taxes. I had to get new copies of my w2´s which took about a week, then it took another week to wait on an appointment to do the taxes, then another two weeks until the money finally was direct deposited into my bank account. By that time I was sooo annoyed with being away, I didn´t even take the time to purchase some important things that I should have purchased- like printer ink. The day the money was in my bank account I immediatly purchased my Greyhound ticket for the next evening. I was able to procure some clothes, thanks to a good friend. I also was able to purchase some jewelry cheap to re-sell here. That´s about it.
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