Praise God! After a year and a half working for EnrichLA, I am happy to announce that I am finally getting a pay raise! I am floored with thankfulness. Since October, I’ve been working as full time as I can with Mondays “off” to catch up on planning for the week:
- 4 schools w/ 4+ hour visits per school, per week
- weekly blogging on ELA website
- lesson planning/prepping
- running errands to pick up supplies
- keeping track of monthly invoices/receipts
- researching gardening and teaching techniques
- attending monthly ELA meetings
- and keeping up with emails between coworkers, school admin & sister organizations/sponsors
With all this, I’ve been earning around $1400 a month, give or take holidays. I work as an independent contractor so only record the sites I WORK at (not the hours spent there or at home). It’s been hard to get used to, as I have only had per-hour occupations before.
Though I am thankful for all of this work compared to last year, it’s been hard because Cobalt has only made $1000 since January. I was slightly prepared to expect this from a startup company but it’s beginning to wear on me now. How are we supposed to move into our own place if we can barely afford where we live now? Most decent apartments are $1300 minimum! We’ve had it easy because our rent was $550 with three roommates; one moved out in May and it’s up to $750 but still. We are, indeed, spoiled - for lack of a better term.
But God always has a plan and I thank Him for knowing our needs before we do!
During a recent meeting with my boss, he agreed to hire me, along with a few of my coworkers, this summer to help maintenance gardens. Last year, only volunteers were used, so I am beyond grateful for this privilege to work for him instead of for a retail facility (my usual summer default). The wages are about the same as if I worked for a local coffee shop or plant nursery; but what’s great is that working for ELA is perfect for my introvertness: I can make my own hours, work with minimal amounts of people (most of the time), enjoy the outdoors (and gardening at that!), listen to music/audio books/sermons whilst pulling weeds, and meet new volunteers who are enthusiastic to train in the art of gardening.
Over the summer I will be making $2000 a month and when the Fall Semester begins, my wages will increase to $2500/month. This amount will act like a salary — it won’t be based on holidays anymore. Though I won’t believe this rate until I see my first check in the mail, I can’t help but begin to be excited that Cobalt and I may be able to actually afford a decent place to live!!
I also just heard that Cobalt and Joel got two more clients this week and so they’ll have paid projects until the end of August (which means Cobalt will actually get a paycheck for once since January!). Hallelujah!
I’m proud of the Cobalt gang in California. To say I miss your gang is an understatement. I’m waiting on Jesus to pull the trigger on delivering full time gigs that will ease the stress of paying the bills.