Collect All Four!

Two blog posts ago, I mentioned that I had been stolen from, conned, and had then had been robbed. I assumed that this meant that I finally had the complete collection. However, I forgot one: identity theft! I can now proudly say, I have collected all 4 specially marked thefts...

Last Saturday, I realized that I had not paid the school for the next week so I went to an ATM. Oddly enough, not one of the ATMs I went to were working. They all said that I had problems with my card. However, I knew that I had plenty in my account and it was telling the same thing to everyone else who tried to use the ATM that morning. This was even happening with ATMs from different companies. I wasn't able to withdraw anything but I paid with my card at a restaurant on Sunday and had no problems. On Monday, I went back to the ATM and all my money was there and I made a withdrawal without any problems whatsoever. After this, I put the situation out of my mind.

Thursday, a friend of mine told me that she went on Saturday too. Somehow, somebody used the machine (maybe a virus of some sort) and stole her number and was using it as a credit card. Her bank caught it and she didn't lose any money. However, it canceled her card so she no longer has money to live here in Guatemala.

I decided that maybe I should look at my account online...

I was $400 in the hole!!! I had over $400 the last time I checked. That means I lost over $800 dollars!!!!

Yeah.

Apparently they did the same with me but my bank did not catch it quite fast enough. There were a series of withdrawals made Monday morning after I made my withdrawal. however, they did eventually cancel my card. So now even if I had money in my account, I could not use it.

I am currently trying to work with my bank from afar, trying to figure out if I can get any of the money back. Please pray. Also, my family plans on visiting and bring a card or some money so I should be fine. Just pray that it will all work out and pray for anyone else who was a victim--tourists who would be stuck here, locals who would not have $800 to lose. There was even a little elderly Guatemalan lady in front of me in the line having the same problems. It was actually quite a large line.

A List of Some Things I Have Learned the Hard Way

Never eat sausage in foreign countries.

Don't walk near an open sewage gutter with 50 pounds of rice on your head.

If a ladder looks homemade and dangerous, don't climb it.

Don't skip class and go to the glass walled cafeteria while wearing a pleather trench coat and a unique hat.

Don't make fun of professors' sons who have passed away because they were wearing short shorts in a photo.

Don't walk in Tegucigalpa, Honduras at night.

If traveling in a European city, never trust Spanish women in pants suits carrying petitions.

Just because he's your watchman, doesn't mean he won't steal from you.

Avoid war zones.

If starring in a play, be sure to check the floor for vomit when making your entrance on stage.

McDonald's isn't ever as good of an idea as it sounds.

Don't stay in hotels that rent by the hour.

Don't trust people.

Trust people.

If it's good for you, it's painful.

If it's bad for you, it will be painful.

Passports with stamps from Jamaica, the Netherlands, and various countries in Africa and Latin America make it difficult for weekend trips to Canada.

If you wait a while to update the homefront about difficult situations that occurred overseas, rumors will be rampant.

If you immediately update the homefront about difficult situations that occurred overseas, rumors will be rampant.

If somebody has a lot of interesting stories to tell, the truth is that they probably lead a very boring life and have lots of spare time to make up interesting stories.

Poor kids can be spoiled too.

Don't get too comfortable, things might change.

Don't get too excited, things might stay the same.

No news is good news. Good news is an oxy-moron. No news is an oxy-moron??

The thing that you think you will do in any certain situation is probably the very thing you can be sure you won't do. That's why you want to do it.

Optimists are foolish and pessimists are depressing. Have optimists as your friends and pessimists as your business partners.

Always have someone on your side (that one I've learned by having it, the hard part is just that it is not always the same people you think it is at the time).

Always be on someone's side.

Four months away from your loved one is a lot harder than it sounds. And it sounds pretty darn hard.

Never promise a sequel to a blog post.


I'll write more later...