So, I lost my cellphone a couple of days ago and it has not been returned. I went today and got a new cell and SIM card, so my updated number is on my contact page. I will eventually get it registered with Chikka.com so text exchange will be possible.
In the meantime, let me tell you what happened…so it was fiesta in our barangay the past few days. On Thursday, the last night of fiesta, there was a beauty pageant (#2 since I’ve been here and yes! this is a rural place) that we went to. It dragged on for about 3 hours and at about hour 2 1/2, I had to pee. I made my way to the bathroom to find that there was no working light. “No problem” I thougt, “My cellphone has a built in flashlight!” But even as I was thinking this, I was also thinking about how this was probably a stupid idea and that I’d drop it in the bucket of water used for flushing. Well, I didn’t do that…but I did forget my phone on the sink. And when I went back 10 or 15 minutes later it was gone.
Everyone there was really helpful and tried to locate my phone for me, even people I’d never met. My host mom made a couple of announcements on the microphone following the pageant, but nobody responded. I called and texted my phone, offering a 500 peso reward (~ $10) but as of now, it’s still missing. The next day, several people got “missed calls” and random texts from my phone, including my language instructor…while we were having merienda in town. She called back and said she heard a kid laugh, then hang up. So, it seems a child has my phone and maybe I’ll see it when it runs out of load and they can’t send mischievous texts to my entire phonebook. In the meantime, I opted to get a new phone and if the old one turns up, I’ll have a backup if I lose this one (it’s a pretty common problem) or I can always sell it.
There’s been a lot going on the last few days, but it’s late and I should head home soon…so that’ll be a story for another day.