In honor of Halloween I have decided to dedicate this blog to the happenings of the last couple of days and tell you all of the ways I have learned that I could die in Ecuador. It all started with one big misunderstanding. You see, we have learned the hard way that we are expected to check in with our boss when we are traveling, just so they know where we are because they feel responsible for us. So, when we went to Cuenca we were so proud of ourselves for calling Johnny and letting him know that we had arrived safely and had a hotel room. We have lived on our own for years and this whole having to report to people for our wellbeing is a big step for us. So, we returned from Cuenca and had been in our apartment for no more than 5 minutes, and it was Johnny on the phone. He then proceeded to tell me something about how people were really worried about us, that someone by the name of Fernando had even called SLC and had our Salt Lake people going crazy with worry and that he was getting calls every 5 minutes to see if we had arrived yet. So, just to let us know, they had called SLC, and then he asked about our trip and if we had fun and whatnot. I got off the phone very confused, because for once Johnny didn't even seem worried about us. And so I told Becky the story but we didn't know a Fernando, and who on earth would know to call Mimi in SLC? I was pretty sure I understood Johnny's Spanish, and pretty sure that the story was correct but it didn't make sense and I thought I was going crazy.
Shortly after, our cell phone rang. It was Landes from BYU, wanting to make sure we're alive. We assured him we were and he told us Johnny had called SLC and that everyone was in a frenzy. I was pretty sure Johnny said some guy named Fernando had called SLC and not himself so after getting off the phone w/ Landes I called Johnny back. I told him, "We just talked with Landes from SLC, and we don't understand what happened" and he said, "me neither".
Johnny proceeded to explain that his boss, the area welfare manager, who lives in Bogota, Columbia is in town and started asking about us. Johnny told him we were traveling and so his boss started asking all sorts of questions, where we were, who we were with, how long we were going to be gone, etc. Johnny basically said, they're by themselves but I put them in contact with the employment specialist in Cuenca, and they called when they arrived, and are traveling today. Johnny had to leave the office for a few hours and when he returned his boss had called SLC, extremely worried for our safety for some reason, thinking we were lost to Ecuador. So, we sent lots of e-mails, talked on the phone, and assured our bosses and those in SLC that we are alive and there weren't any problems and we didn't know why Johnny's boss was so worried and had called SLC.
Johnny's boss is named Carlos Fernandez, not Fernando. But between Becky and I, we still affectionately call him Fernando. And he wanted to meet with us this morning. So we went in and had quite the lecture about safety. He explained how if anything happened to us it would be an international crisis for the church and for BYU. He then gave us guidelines, saying we should check in every day when we are traveling, pay a little bit more for a secure hotel, and never take a taxi from the street. Well, our hotel although only $7 a night in Cuenca was plenty secure, and I suppose he doesn't know that we don't actually ever go out after dark because it's not safe, and when we are traveling we are seriously in bed at 9 p.m. But the taxi thing was a new one. This is when we found out about all the ways we could die in Ecuador.
Hermano Fernandez explained that Ecuador has become more dangerous in the last 8 months because of the rise in unemployment, poverty, and government changes. Also, apparently they recently released a whole prison full of people and so there are tons of thieves running loose on the streets. He told us more about a drug we have heard about. We have been advised not to take anything from anyone because there could be a drug on the paper that makes you lose your freewill. He explained that the drug is absorbed through the skin and so you lose your freewill but are still conscience and will do anything you are told, whether this includes sex, robbing a bank, or killing someone. Then, when the drug wears off the victim won't remember a thing. He also talked about taxis and how we could be kidnapped and there was a girl kidnapped recently when she took a taxi to institute and nobody knows what happened to her. Typically girls kidnapped in taxis are either shipped off to Japan for prostitution, or to the FARC (columbian drug lords) for prostitution, or they are killed and their organs are sold.
Well, none of these options sounded attractive and so when we went grocery shopping after our safety lecture, we decided to walk instead of taking the taxi like we usually do. I'm not sure if we did this out of obedience to our leader or out of fear of murder and kidnapping. So, we walked the 20 minutes home laden with heavy bags of milk, fruits, and vegetables. We just about died, it doesn't help that one of Becky's arms is broken. We laughed the whole way as everyone looked at us like we were crazy and as we took like 5 breaks to avoid our arms falling off. We were exhausted when we arrived home but satisfied that we were alive. We decided that maybe Ecuador really is as dangerous as people say, they obviously have a reason to worry. Maybe we have just been protected, we've taken a lot of taxis in our day. And so maybe Hermano Fernandez over reacted with the whole calling SLC thing, but maybe we should also just take the danger more seriously. One thing is for sure, we'll probably never get into another taxi again. We still kind of laugh at the paranoia of the men of Ecuador that have charge over us but at the same time, being lectured for the first time in as long as we can remember, did have some sort of effect on us. I'm not really sure what more we can do to be safe, we're pretty cautious but apparently everyone still thinks we're going to die if we go outside of our house. We're working on convincing them that we really won't.
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