A new washer and dryer is humbling

My dryer broke. It lived a good life, but 12+ loads a week for my family of 6 finally killed it. My washer was close behind. You had to kick it to get it to go thru the rinse cycle. I've been wanting a new front loader set for a while now. JP wanted me to wait until we bought a house and moved before I got one. Ultimately we went to Home Depot and I picked out a new teal LG set. I've always wanted a pretty washing machine :-) It was horribly expensive, but we are hoping the savings in water and electricity will help pay for it in the long run.

When washing machine came, I was so excited. I couldn't wait for the delivery men to leave so i could try it out. I washed every stitch of laundry in the house! The same day that my new washing machine came, my mom called to talk to me about Lupeta's grandsons. For those of you that don't know, Lupita used to be our babysitter. When my siblings and I were young, my mom worked part-time and Lupita took care of us. Now that we are all grown up, she cleans and babysits for other families. She works here in the US Monday thru Wednesday. She goes home Wendesday afternoon. She has 2 grandsons, Elias and Sammy.

In Ensenada, only elementary school is free. You have to pay for what we would consider to be Jr high (but I think for them it's considered high school). After they finish those 3 years of school after elementary, they can go on to trade school. Ironically, trade school is less expensive than the 3 years of Jr high/High school! Anyway, most of the families can't afford to send the kids to the 3 years of transtional school, therefore the kids can't go to trade school or college. When Lupita told us this, it all made everything "click" in our minds. That was why there was such a lack of education and so much poverty. These poor kids don't even have a chance. So 2 year ago, JP's dad and us decided to split the bill to pay for Elias to go to school. Lupita had been paying for it, but it was just too expensive for her to continue to pay for it. When JP's dad died JP and I agreed that we wanted Elias to continue going to school, so we picked up the whole bill.

Alright, so now that you have the background, back to "my mom called the same day I got my washer and dryer." She called to chat, and she told me that she had talked to Lupita a few days ago. Sammy had graduated from elementary school and Lupeta was so proud of him, but worried. Now both boys would be of the age that you had to pay for school. My mom asked her what they were going to do about Sammy going to school. Lupita said that he wasn't going to go next year. :-( She said they couldn't afford to send him.

So my mom and I talked about telling our friends, who know Lupita, about the situation and see if anyone was intrested in contributing to help send Sammy to school next school year. It's really not that much money, it's only $100 a month. I mean *it is* a lot of money, but considering it will change his life FOREVER, it's not that much KWIM? So mom suggested that maybe we could get 10 of our friends to contribute $10 a month for 11 months (they only get one month off school). So maybe that will work.

After I got off the phone with my mom, I figured out that to send both boys to school for the year would be 2,200. It was almost exactly what my new washer and dryer cost. Boy, talk about taking the wind out of your sails. I had been bouncing all around the house like a fruitcake all morning, sooo excited about my new pretty washer and dryer. And for that same amount of money I could have sent 2 kids to school for an entire year. I felt sick.

So fast forward a week. I'm still using my washer and dryer, but it dosen't have the same appeal that it did when the delivery men brought it that morning. I feel jaded about it now, everytime I look at it, I think that money could send 2 kids to school. Don't get me wrong, we still are paying for Elias to go to school, but Sammy...We need to find someone or someones who can pay to send Sammy to school. Maybe someone who didn't need a new washer and dryer. ((sigh))