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Let's Go Home! |
| Bang! Bang! Bang! Excited pounding was rattling the frosted glass door to our room. The frantic pounding continued till Ron went to see what was wrong. We recognized the boy who had been at the front door of the hospital just three hours earlier. Excited Spanish words tumbled into the room when Ron opened the door. WE looked at each other fearing the worst but not understanding anything. It was two AM. WE were so exhausted we stood there in a daze. The boy was so frantic he grabbed Ron and pulled him along. The reason for the excitement soon became clear as Ron caught a glimpse of the empty car with doors left open. He jumped in and drove around the block hoping to see someone running with our suitcases, stereo, purse, travel documents, camera, etc. How foolish of us to have left this car in the keeping of a guard. We should have unloaded it ourselves. Have you ever felt like saying about yourself: "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" |
| I stayed in the room waiting for Ron to return, imagining all sorts of things. I figured even the car had been taken. Soon Ron came back looking so upset. Briefly he told me that many of our things had been taken. I immediately had to go down and see what all was gone. When I saw, I burst into tears and uncontrollable sobs. My faith was at a very low ebb. I was ready to go home. In agony we held each other sobbing in the street. Ron kept saying he understood how I felt but there were no funds to go back home. We were stuck. We had to stick it out and make the best of the situation. |
| The rest of the night I could not sleep. When daylight came, we unpacked what was left of our things which the robber did not have time to get. When we took them to the room we had slept in, all our over night nights were missing. After a bit of anxiety, we discovered we had been moved to another room. At this time we met the man who had invited us to come for the year. WE were being moved into a much tinier room. |
| WE had two army boxes we had padlocked. These were our furniture. They provided a small dresser and two hospital beds. They brought a small closet to hang our clothes in and we had filled the room past its capacity. The closet was a three inch peg. While we were making our new home as cozy as possible, a Mexican man came running with our brief case. It had been found by police. Inside were our travel documents. They had found our papers scattered over several blocks of the city and then found the case in an alleyway. My visa was still missing but we were happy to get the tattered documents. We kept hoping the camera and stereo would be found also but these items were such a grand prize to the impoverished people. We had many pictures that we had taken but never could see of the country. It was sad for our hearts but the greatest lesson was in store for us. |
| There was no sink or bathroom in our room. Across the open court yard was a place we could take care of those needs but we had lost our bathrobes in the night raid of the car. Almost directly above the toilet was the shower. We were challenged to get clean. |
Privacy was at a premium. Our frosted glass door was a window for many
curious brown eyes wondering at all hours of day and night what the
Americans might be doing. Many curious children of visitors or patients
peeked in on us when they got bored during visits of sick relatives.
Hospital rooms were around us and also on the first floor. All could stand
on the first floor and see right up to our door. The open courtyard style
gave lots of fresh air to the patients. The door creaked open many times
during the night. It was hard to relax. There was no key provided to
lock our door. This was something I could never get used to. I liked
privacy. |
Many of the Adventist Mexicans who came by to console us when they
heard of the loss, were very angry that their fellow countrymen had
treated us in such a devastating manner. They all wanted to hear what had
been taken. We did not realize it was amazing to them we had so much. What
we had left was more than many of them had. It seemed an amusement to many
of them to talk about our loss.
Since this experience we have again been robbed in a much larger fashion. After taking a beating by a medical doctor partner, with his threatening to shoot Rose, the final effect was loss of home and the family had to camp in tents. This second event happened almost 20 years after this first lesson. The effect was similar. The devastation left us miserable. In our misery we turned to God for comfort. WE discovered that by loosing, we had a better ability to reach out to those who have so little. No wonder Jesus laid His riches aside to live a poor mans life so He could reach people on this earth. |
| One sweet couple who came to welcome us, we fell in love
with right away. Nico could speak a couple words of English but we could
not talk to him in English because he mixed up what we said. They came
every day to our room where we were lying on our beds wilted from the heat
and humidity and the robbery. Each day we got Spanish lessons crammed into
our brains. Nico and his wife Leony watched out for us like a mother and
father.
The bond of love broke through the language barrier and we understood each other. She worked in the lab and he worked in xray. |