Kidnapped!!!

Today started out like any Sunday.  Church. Once the service was over, which went long because of the long winded preacher (which was me, but it was actually it was because it was communion Sunday), we headed to the beach. Typical Sunday island activity. 

The beach destination was Fifi Beach.  It is a rather secluded beach around a cliff.  It is a great place to go because 1) it is usually not crowded except for a few Japanese that go there as a tour a group for snorkeling 2) when they Japanese are there, they have a life guard 3) the snorkeling is really good 4) sometimes you see dolphins.

I have had a cold for a week now.  A few days I felt really crummy, but mostly it is head congestion and a sore throat.  Sadly, you can't dive when your head is stuffy, so we've just been going to the beach. (Perry was a little mad because he really wanted to dive.)  Since I'm trying not to get much water in my ears (ear ache), I just sat at the beach while Ashley snorkeled.  Perry was nice and stayed with me.

A couple of times I thought heard noises and turned back to look.  I didn't see anything, so I figured it was just Perry.  And then the next time I turned too look, Perry and all my stuff was gone! I was probably only 10 feet away from my stuff, but Perry had been platynapped.  The first thing I did was try to get Ashley back to shore, but she was in snorkel-land and couldn't hear me.  So, I yelled at the thief in the jungle.  I said things like "You are not a nice person"...."My dive mask leaks, you know" (it actually doesn't)...."You can take my camera but it isn't working properly and is really old" (that is true)..."What? You took my seashells? Seriously? We live on an island; get your own."..."It's not nice to steal on the Lord's day. I think that makes it worse."...I'm fairly positive he was still hiding in the jungle and heard me.

Eventually Ashley looked up and I motioned for her to come in and I took off to find the vehicle.  You see, they stole our keys...car keys, house keys, house sitting keys, etc....I was relieved to see no stolen vehicle and then when Ashley came, I explained that all our stuff was stolen...and yes, that meant our clothes.  I figured the person would probably dump our stuff once they picked through it and got anything worth anything.  So, I wanted to go around the cliff and search. But I was scared of getting Smittynapped.  Eventually, I saw a man with a kid going around the cliff, so I kind of followed them and then asked if they'd make sure no one killed me while I looked through the edge of the jungle for my stuff.  The man had already spotted some of it.

In one place I found my bag, my other swimming suit, my sunblock, my mask defogger, my shorts, my t-shirt, and my bag of shells.  Later, I found Ashley's shorts, shirt, and sunblock. (And rest assured, Perry was safe!) Sadly, they had unzipped Ashley shorts pocket and took the keys...along with my camera and dive mask/snorkel. 

 I found a local family having a BBQ on the beach, crashed their party, and called 911. (No one knew the phone number for the police.)  As the adventure unfolded we eventually had 4 cops show up in 2 cars (you'd think this was a high profile crime). The police were actually really funny and made the experience slightly more enjoyable.  Adding to all of this, we had a to get a tow truck (with another funny driver), which was also exciting, but expensive, and then break into my friend Ben's apartment so we could feed his cats since he's in the states and because my purse was locked inside.  I am now considering a life of crime since picking locks seems to be so easy.  (On a side note, breaking in to Ben's place was a lot of fun. Ashley, Pearl who is the pastor's wife, and I all dressed in black along with Tisoy who is the pastors son. On the way home, I asked if we could break into something else.  They laughed but did not stop at the bank I suggested.) 

Well, there may not be any cool pics posted for a while.  And I guess diving/snorkeling is out of the question.