Scammed and Robbed

It has been a relatively rough week, and I have not written about it because I didn’t know how to share some of it.

Scammed

One of the biggest pleasures we have is a weekly massage. We really don’t have the money for this, but we budget because of the enjoyment it brings. The spa we use said that they had a specialist coming in who could excise our skin tags, moles, warts for about $3 per small blemish and $10 bigger issue.(We have been consistently to dermatologists who assure us that nothing is cancerous.) So, this sounded good to us and we said, “Go ahead.” Well, by the time they had removed every microscopic and every larger issue, the price that was announced was many thousands of dollars.  We were just stunned. No idea that it would end up here.  Of course, being foreigners, they assumed we had many assets, no matter how often we said that we did not have money. When we told them how much more money this is compared to our monthly salary, they understood better our horror. Because we have always lived with limited resources, we are very good at saying “no”. What a shock to feel like we got caught in a ‘scam”. Of course, it really is not a scam; we got value for money, but the feelings are the same. We are now on “timed” payments.

Robbed

This second piece is bizarrely difficult to explain. The outside door to our apartment block was/is being redone. The night that the outside door was not able to be locked, I heard things in our living room. I was awake for long periods. It sounded like a mouse rustling through papers, movements, etc. But it was windy outside and no reason for me to wander around checking on things. However, the next afternoon when we were ready to go out, we found that our apartment door cards (keys, like a hotel door card) were no longer in our apartment. Rick’s was not in his pants pockets which had been laying on the living room table, and mine had been ripped from my halyard, leaving a broken clip. We obviously had the cards to get into our apartment the day before, but they are absolutely not in our apartment now. If only one card were gone, we would just say somehow we had lost it, but two? Now, how did someone get into our little, bitty apartment while we were in the bedroom? Why would they take our keys? If they wanted to take something, just do it then! This is not a violent culture and if they wanted to hurt us they would have done it already, so we are not scared in that sense. But we do feel violated and frustrated to know why and if the key will be used at some future time. We got new cards, and tried to explain to the apartment caregivers, but it is bizarre and hard to justify.

Anyway, this is not the first time for us to be scammed or robbed. It is just part of life, and we trust in a Father who holds all things, …but we still need your prayers for peace of mind.