As an adult, have you ever been in so much despair that you couldn’t possibly imagine things getting better? How did things turn out?

oh yes, when I arrived to Ecuador (August 1999) my then wife, after 5 days told me she didn’t want to continue living with me, so I was left alone in a country under a severe economic crisis.

I was alone, until i found a friend from the university. And I started working at a company that did not pay me for 6 months, I was living thanks to the savings I had before coming here. Oh, and I loaned the owner of the company all my savings (around 700USD, don’t ask me why I did it.. I just did it) except for a couple of hundred dollars. Ok, it was a country you could live (back then) with 40USD/month… but after 4 months I was having only 40USD… it was January 21th, 2000 and things were not getting better… that night the president was overthrown. So things, instead of getting better were going all way down, 40US, 6 months waiting for my payment, the person I lent the money was not paying.. and a government being overthrown, so in the next two or three months things will not improve, for sure!!: Change of ministers, directors.. all the government stopped, no new government contracts, maybe not payment for teachers, doctors, etc… things were turning very ugly.

And then… my stomach started, somehow to hurt.. lower right part of the abdomen. Don’t even think on seeing a doctor.. I just applied myself a mental medicine “it is not appendicitis, it is not, I’m OK, I’m OK, there is nothing bad”, etc, etc.

And then… the only person I knew, my friend from the university, the only that helped me on those times. he actually had appendicitis. I was soooo concerned: i had no money to help him… and he was the only person that used to help me… I was at the bottom of a very deep hole, no lights on sight, no nothing.

I cried, a lot, of course.. I was awake the whole night thinking on what I will do.. how to solve this situation.

But.. after you hit the bottom, the only way you could take is going back up again…

After 15 or so days my friend called me and told me he was offered to teach some 64 or 128 hours of a programming language I was using (I was programming back then) and asked me if I wanted to be the teacher for those 2 courses…. of course I said yes! it was 4 hours a day and every 3 hours of classes I was earning enough to pay a monthly rent… I started to think in terms of monthly rents… 128 hours=40 months of rent. Then after 2 or 3 weeks I got another offer from another university around the same hours and rate. After a month another offer from another university and suddenly I was overloaded with work… and man: that is nice… to suddenly have something to think on, to concentrate on, to expect some payment at the end of the month.. to start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Oh, I then met my current wife and she guided me on how to do things in the proper way, like for example recovering the money from the bastard that was my boss. After a few days I got a check from him to be payed in 30 days, back then if someone did not honor a check he will go to jail, for sure and for real. So I went to the bank, the account has no money, I then went to the police and bring an officer with me to the company. He shi**ed in his pants and in less than an hour I had my money!! Finally!

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