Why can't we leave Guatemala?
I could easily find a 100 reasons why we can't leave but other than being trapped by the beauty and magic of this place, we actually are unable to to leave because of the laws and situation in the world.
I could go back to Poland.
Angelo could go back to the Philippines.
But we can't travel together.
! WARNING !
This post will probably turn into a rant.
Angelo can't come to Poland at the moment. It is difficult enough in the normal circumstances but during Covid world panic it is almost impossible.
A looong time ago, a group of Western European men decided to divide the world and create imaginary borders. Of course, that was after they invaded everyone and claimed people's lands as their own. So nowadays, we need visas in order to cross these borders. Well, I shouldn't say ''we''... I can travel nearly everywhere easily just because I happen to be born in a place that provided me a ''good passport''. However, those of us who hold ''bad passports'', which are people from lands that were stolen, need to go through lengthy and expensive processes in order to obtain their visas to be able to enter other countries, especially Europe and the US (oh, the irony!).
How to rule- a practical guide for beginners
1. Arrive to a land where people already live
2. Murder them, rape their women, force your religion upon them
3. Use natural resources as excessively as possible
4. Kidnap people from other lands and force them to work for you for nothing or make indigenous people work for as little money as possible after destroying their natural way of life
5. Create your empire on the backs of others and brag about how powerful and strong you are
6. Create imaginary borders so nobody can enter ''your'' land without your approval
Back to our story... Angelo applied for the Schengen visa in order to come to Poland. After providing all sorts of paperwork, explaining our private life circumstances to strangers and a lot of efforts from my dad to submit the invitation and all necessary papers, someone decided he can cross the imaginary border and he arrived to meet my family.
That was before the ''pandemic'' though. Now, Schengen visas are suspended. I spoke to the Polish consulate in Guatemala if there's a way for him to come to Poland as a father of Malaya and the answer was no because we are not married...
Of course the fact we have a child together is not as important as having a paper stating we are married. Who cares if a child is with her father or not?
And obviously if we were married there is no way Angelo could bring Covid to my country. This can only happen if we haven't sworn our loyalty and love to each other in front of some officials.
''Why don't you just get married?''- one might ask.
Well, we don't want to make this decision forced by external circumstances.
Secondly, it is not as easy as people might think. We are not in our countries. There's no Polish or Philippines embassy in Guatemala. We would need to obtain a lot of documents from our countries and then our marriage would need to be registered there, which can take a long time especially in the Philippines (I heard from one guy he's been waiting 8 months and still hasn't gotten the confirmation).
Ok, so if Angelo can't come to Poland, why don't I go to the Philippines?
That was our plan from the beginning. We supposed to stay here for a month and then go back to the PH. But in March, they locked the country down and they stopped letting tourists in. We thought it would be a short term situation but almost a year later, nothing much has changed other than they started to issue visa to spouses of Filipinos in and parents of Filipino children.
On that note, I qualify to enter BUT I need a visa... which I was told I need to obtain from Poland... Angelo can't come with me so the only way would be for me to go alone.
Why don't I want to go alone?
There's no way under current circumstances I will travel anywhere without my man.
At any time, they can decide to change laws, to close down countries, to come up with some new strain of Covid that would prevent us from traveling. Therefore, there's a real possibility we would not be able to see each other again, for whoever knows how long. I am not taking this risk.
Angelo is Malaya's father and I don't want her to be away from him because of man made laws.
He deserves to be in her life just as much as I do.
Therefore, we are in a beautiful Guatemala.
But I guess usually the bigger plan turns out to be better than your own...
The most important thing is that we are together ❤
