Last night was an adventure for sure. We started with a delicious chili dinner "Chili on a Chilly night in Chile"
We headed out to church for the Thursday night mutual.
We were told that often things don't start on time here as "Chilean Time" makes "Mormon Standard Time look early" (for my Mormon friends). So when we arrived just before 7:30pm, we were not overly alarmed that the building was still dark and the gate to the parking lot was still locked up. At 7:45pm, we were told by the Camerons (police) that we were "parked bad" and that they would let us off this one time. Thank goodness - we didn't have our passport copies or international driver's license on us...
At 8pm, we called a 'gringo' from the ward and asked about how late is late. He said that his wife, the YW president, had left to return home as this is not something that typically happens. They were a little concerned about the YM president who should have been there to open up. As we were about to leave, we saw a car pull up and a man got out to open the gate - we assume the YM president. At this point, there was a car parked in front of the drive and we could not, with our borrowed truck, pull into the lot. We decided to head home. (The kids were getting a little freaked out as the church is in a "sketch" part of town) We'll try again next week.
Sounds like Adventure enough, right ---- OH NO... We're just getting started:
Apparently it is vital that you use your home alarm system in this country. Theft is a HUGE issue. We haven't really used it, because we're still figuring it out. We were taught how to use it properly so we decided to set it when we left for church. Well, we have a dog. A dog and these motion sensors don't play nice. So we put the dog in the kitchen (no motion sensors there), set the alarm and headed out for the night.
Upon return, we found everything safe and sound, disarmed the system and thought we were good to go.
Every time we disarm the system, someone from the alarm company calls to verify that we intended to disarm the system. We keep thinking we must be doing something wrong - we later learn that this is normal. They will always call.
The problem with this is the fact that they call in Spanish. Only 1 of us speak Spanish. So setting the alarm without Greg is not an option.
Anyway - back to the "Adventure". When the alarm company called last night, Greg gave them his name and password and we thought we were good to go. After a couple of minutes Greg and I headed back out to go to the store for a few things and to fill his truck with gas.
As we are getting out to head to the store, he gets a call from Andrew - Immediately I panic. Apparently, the police are at our house. Andrew has not opened the door as he is unsure what to do. We immediately rush back home to find the security people in our driveway.
They were really nice (I think - I couldn't understand what they were saying). Apparently, when Greg gave them his name and password, the lady on the phone from the alarm company "couldn't understand him". WHAT??? If they can't understand Greg - we're all screwed. HE's the one who speaks spanish!!!
We later realized that he gave them his name as "Greg Schick" and they have his information as "Gregory Schick". The language barrier kept them from understanding that Greg is short for Gregory. He asked if they have anyone on staff that speaks english and apparently they do. Our plan for the kids and I - we'll just say "No Hablo Espanol" and then give them our name and password (which is a Spanish word - let's hope we remember it!). My plan - forget the alarm. I'll take my chances with the bad guys.
Oh well - we wanted an Adventure...
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