Money Stolen

Tuesday October 7

(Do to lack of time, this has not be edited.)

I got a call from the computer store saying that they couldn’t get a cable for me. That’s bad news.


Wednesday October 8

The worker, Marcos, arrived with the roof repairman. He showed him what has to be done. So the other guy took measurements to see how much ‘chova’ is needed. He told me that he would need $220 for the materials now, and $150 later for more.

I went to a bedroom to get the money to pay him while he and Marcos were in the kitchen. I was told that he’d back tomorrow and Marcos said that he’d be here Friday to put tile on the roof.

About 1.5 hours later Jayne yelled and said she could not find her purse which was in her handbag. She had left it in the kitchen. She looked all around and couldn’t find it. She said that she didn’t take it out but looked around the house anyway.

In her purse was $80, her debt card and the Spanish ID that was her father’s.

Of course, this upset both of us. Jayne got on the phone with the bank to put a block on it. Then we thought which one of the two took the purse. We had Marcos here before and he didn’t go into the handbag (a bigger one) that was in the kitchen, so we thought it was the new guy.

I told Jayne that if the guy comes by with the materials, great, but we will tell him to go home. Since I already paid for the materials, we’ll take it of course. However, he might not come by tomorrow. Time will tell.

Later, I left for Quito to go to Hewlett Packard to see if they have a power cord for my computer. I was going to leave earlier but I’m glad I didn’t, as Jayne would worrying all alone.

When I went to HP, the guy told me that I needed to bring in my computer as there are many different models of Pavilion, which is the name on my HP computer. So, this was a wasted trip!

I’ll just go back tomorrow.


Thursday October 9

The roof worker came with the materials that I gave him the money for and he arrived on time.

I asked Jayne is she still wants him to work and after discussing it we agreed that he should. We thought that he didn’t take the money and credit card but it was Marcos. Marcos is the guy who had his workers come to do other work around the house. We thought that if we told him to go we’d only have to find someone else who might not do a good job and it might take a couple weeks to find someone else. In the meantime the roof top balcony would be exposed to more water damage.

We think now that the old worker stole the money. I reflected back and remember that Marcos was closer to the handbag than the other guy who was standing in the dinette are and not the kitchen.

Marcos said yesterday that he would be here on Friday. So we’ll see if he arrives.

I went to the city to see if the Hewlett Packard store has a power converter for my computer. Jayne remained home with the worker.

I took a bus to the city and from the bus stop I got a taxi to go to the address of HP. The taxi got caught in traffic and it wasn’t moving at all. I thought that there was some accident ahead. So I got out of the taxi and paid him the cost on the meter which was $1.

I knew that there was another street that would get me to where I wanted to go, so I walked. Walking I found a lot of people on the street. There was no demonstration but it was some sort of holiday. There were a lot of school kids walking, too.

I got a taxi that took another road to where I wanted to go.

At the HP store I showed the woman my computer. She looked up the number on the back and looked on her computer to find the right power cord I needed. She found it – thank God. I tested it and it worked. The cost was $123! But I’m glad to have it.

Then I left Quito by taxi and went to the San Lois Mall where I went to Friday’s Restaurant where they have wireless. Going there I have a faster connection so I can download some audio files.

I wrote to Maria telling her of the problems with the Director – much the same what you read here. After spending about 2.5 hours at the mall I went home.

The worker had already left for the day and will be back tomorrow.

During the day Jayne noticed that the neighbor threw over to small plastic bags that had dog shit in it. She threw it back. One landed on their balcony and the other right on top of the concrete wall. Later in the evening we saw that the pig woman threw one bag that was on the wall over again.

So, again, Jayne threw it back. This time it landed on their balcony.

Can you understand such people. First, where I come from only bad kids would do this, and this is supposed to be mature adults?!

Another reason to this damn country!


Friday October 10

I got an email from my friend, Matt, that he and his wife, Amparo, have a new baby boy. He was born yesterday. Amparo had to have a ciscerian. This is their third child. They already have a boy and a girl. The boy weighed in at 9.5 pounds! This is big for anyone and with Amparo being small he was really big.

The roof worker came today at 9am. He gave me the money back that Jayne gave him while I was in the city so he could buy more materials. Apparently he didn’t need extra materials.

He was finished about 10.30am. I asked him how much I owed him for his labor and he said $200. This is taking into account the extra $20 I paid him for the materials – thus his labor cost was $220. The materials came to $200 but he had asked for $220 which I gave him. (I got a bill that said $199 and some change.)

He wrote down the total of materials and labor at $420. And he said that I owed him $200.

Mathieu told me he is good but he’s expensive. I can see he really is, as he worked by himself and did the job in 9 hours for the two days.

After he left I looked at what he originally wrote down. He put down $220 for materials and $150 for the balance. So, this would be his labor as there was nothing else that he bought. So, figuring this all up (deducting the $20 overpayment) I should have paid him $130 for labor.

So, I was cheated out of $70!

I thought that it was strange that he took the paper that he originally wrote on. But I got it back before he left. Yes, I have proof of what he wrote, I have the material bill and I had him write how much I paid him today, sign it and date it. But IF I have him back, and I point this out to him I know he would not give it back – he’ll probably make some BS reason.

Marcos was supposed to show up and he didn’t. It could mean that he’s either busy with his other job or that he afraid to show up because of the money he stole.

Matt told me in the email this morning that, “…I can’t begin to tell you how much they (all his workers) stole from me while working on my house.”

It seems like stealing is endemic here! This is one more reason to leave Ecuador. My list for wanting to live in Cyprus is growing longer and longer, as you can see.