We really had to make a choice to either stay in El Salvador or go back to Canada. Like I mentioned in the previous post, we decided to stay and fight, while getting adjusted to the new lifestyle. Here is the link to the previous post of our journey after we lost the beach property.
https://steemit.com/story/@joalvarez/our-life-after-we-lost-our-beach-home-and-paradise-part-2-of-our-life-experience-in-el-salvador
This is our new gated community in Ciudad Real where we bought our townhouse and where we lived.
This is how our backyard looked like when we moved in, which was just filled with weeds etc. so we had the company worker which we bought these townhouses from to clean all that and plant some new grass, which is a totally different way of planting the grass than what we are used to, but I mentioned that in a previous post.
We absolutely loved the view of the mountains, and we were told that we were going to be able to have the view, since the company is not building any more of the townhouses, which at the end was not true, since the company kept on building and building more townhouses in this Ciudad Real.
This is our backyard after the grass was planted and we also planted our coconut trees which we brought from our beach property, hoping that the coconuts will survive and some did and some, unfortunately, did not.
We also plated some banana trees, and a mango tree and slowly kept on adding all different kinds of fruits trees.
Our neighbor who is also our new friend is building our garage.
These are our two townhouses that we bought together and made it into one property. The reason we bought two was that these are very tiny townhouses and they were pretty good price and this way our yard is big and one of the townhouses is for my mother-in-law to live in. So we had to build this whole wall and put in the garage doors. Now we just have to repaint the whole thing.
This is what it looked when it was all finished.
While doing all this and driving the boys to a bilingual private school (Escuela Interamericana) which was super expensive because half of the classes were taught in English and half in Spanish, plus the boys needed to have a tutor to help them with the language and homework, which was additional charge and which also made it super long day for the boys, which restricted them to join any sports team since there was just not enough time in a day and learning the language was the most important right now.
The boys hated their school uniforms.
Long story short, I started working in Academia Europea in Santa Ana, which is a language school where I was teaching English. I absolutely loved it, and at the same time, it was really helpful for me to get better with my Spanish.
It wasn't a great pay since I was getting paid $4.50/hr where the minimum daily wage in El Salvador was at that time around $10.00/day. So my classes were about 2 hrs each, but my daily schedule was all different. Sometimes I had 2 classes, sometimes 3, but sometimes only 1, so at the end, it was just not worth for me to work there even though I really, really enjoyed it.
This was the school, I was teaching English. This is the waiting room or resting room from where you can see the wonderful view of the mountains and it also had a pool which is not very usual, but like I said we are adjusting to the new culture and new life.
This is where I would usually enjoy my lunch or when I had a break.
We would look for land or coffee farms that were for sale since that was our second plan for the income. We saw lots of amazing places and then we finally found coffee finca (farm) that was just what we were looking for. It was beautiful and it had two houses on it where one we would rent out and the other one is where the people that take care of the place live in. The coffee farm was filled with lots of different fruit trees, which make shade for the coffee plants and at the same time you get to enjoy the fruit and some you can sell.
Everything is working out great as planned. When we were ready to make the deal and got the money to purchase the Coffee Finca another setback hit us.
The owner decided to change the plans and sell the property, not till next year since this year he was making really good profit from the coffee, so it wasn't worth for him to sell it now.
Our hearts dropped and we were back to zero. We had no time or money to wait until next year. This is where we decided to go back to Canada and work some more, save more money, pay the townhouse off and come back when we are ready to come back. We were heartbroken and so were the boys. We waited until the boys finished their school year and then we went back, not knowing when we will be back. We had our dear friend Alfredo who is going to take care of our townhouses and we made some really good friends who were our next door neighbors. We had nothing left in Canada, since we sold our house and everything we owed. So we had to come back to Canada and stay with my parents for a while till we got back on our feet.
Marcus and Jordan. This was our last full day in El Salvador in 2012, which was also Jordans Birthday, before heading back to Canada the next day. We thought is would be nice to celebrate Jordans' birthday in El Salvador with his friends from the neighborhood, since they love birthday parties and pinatas.
All the kids had a wonderful time beating up on the pinata and getting all the candies.
These are the links to my previous posts about Our Life Experience Living in El Salvador.
https://steemit.com/life/@joalvarez/experience-of-a-life-time-four-months-living-on-the-beach
https://steemit.com/life/@joalvarez/our-dream-paradise-is-being-washed-by-the-river-part-1-of-our-experience-living-in-el-salvador-as-family
https://steemit.com/story/@joalvarez/our-life-after-we-lost-our-beach-home-and-paradise-part-2-of-our-life-experience-in-el-salvador
All content is original. The pictures were taken with Sony Cyber-shot W350.
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God Bless You!
jabez518 Good article and nice blog.
Thank you @jabez518
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I think need to comeback to read more.
I know that feeling that you have to let go everything, nothing left only you and your loved ones.
We all have struggles in life. I admire your positivity.
I'm sure it will be fine, someday in the right time...the important things is that you are together with your family. It's a blessing.
God bless your family always
xoxo
Yes, that is absolutely right and that is all that matters in life. It's not what you owe, or where you live, but it's all about the family.
Thank you @sunnylife for always inspiring me.
xoxo
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