Fun day in Cuenca

Hi everyone .... thought I would share a few experiences all of which we had in one day .... TODAY! .... While in our ministry this morning I suggested we go to town and get lunch and a Shu-shine and Carol asked for some flowers too (3.00 for all of those in the photo, she was in a tropical mood as you can see) ... So after two hours in our ministry .... it was off to the city proper .... let the fun begin....

First we get a taxi and have a great conversation about the truth.... I go to place the "Bible Teach" book with the taxi driver and he says he already has it (great)  .... In fact, that book is how he learned, God's name Jehovah .... so he said, with a smile on his face .... then when we were about finished with the ride, he thanks us for the encouraging conversation and said he will look forward to learning more from the friends that are calling on him and he looked forward to seeing us in the future.... we hope to see him too ... perhaps next time as a brother! From this time on, things take a turn ...... we're all smiles as I look for a shu-shine man as I don't see my usual guy.... so I stroll down the side walk and see a shu-shine guy probably in his early 20's, who obviously had a few handicaps, a deformed hand and some other problems ... he sees my shoes, and that they are 6 weeks past due for a shine, and with puppy dog eyes, asks if he can shine my shoes ... So of course I feel bad for him and let him shine the shooooes .... before I sit down, I ask him, if he can make change on a $10.00, he says he can, so I get up on the throne for the shine. First thing I noticed is he doesn't use the same method to do the job, that i'm used to but everybody has there own way of doing the shine job... and of course, I being a nice guy, figure I'm going help him out, after all he not begging,  no,  he's trying to make an honest buck (wrong) finally he finishes and the shoes are shiny and they have some color restored but he doesn't do a very through job... well, it is only .50 and they do look better, or so I reason.... then I give him the 10.00 and he starts to tell me that the shine is 4.00! So we go back and forth and, I explain that, no ones pays 4.00 for a shine here in the middle of town, and a poor shine at that! So then he digs out two .50 pieces, and looks at me as if to say, ok I'll give you a 1.00 discount, now get out of here, scram! I'm not going away, so he then tells me he will go and get change for the 10.00 and will be back .... Carol looks at me a reminds me that I better follow him, so I do, but when he enters a familiar restaurant, I wait outside as the cashier is just around the corner from where I am standing ... so I'm waiting and after about 30-40 second I look to see what's taking so long.... and the guy is gone! The bathrooms are upstairs so I think he ditched me into the bathroom and so I wait for him to come out, and when the person that is in there comes out,  it's not him! So I start to go up stairs to see if he's seated, and ready to spend the money, ordering lunch with the money that he just ripped off,  and of course ....  he's not there either! Where did he go? ... I check the kitchen, and everyone in there starts looking at me like I'm the bold and crazy "gringo" going into the most holy of holy areas of the restaurant..........not there! The only thing I can figure, is that he walked through the restaurant and then waited at the other door ..... watched me, and then went out the other door as I came in the front door..... I look up and down the street, but I can't find him anywhere ....now your probably asking yourself  ..... "all that over 3.00"? ..... "Heilig has lost his mind" .....  Well here it is, he thinks I'm a sucker ..... And I figure I'm not getting ripped off, especially from someone I thought, I was helping out .... So I now find my usual shine man and he comes to see what the deal is  .... I explain what happened and he's standing by the other guys "throne" and sees all the guys stuff and says "he'll be back"...... Yes but when? ...."Soon" by now you know what that means.

So off we go for lunch, and as you can imagine, this little escapade was the talk over lunch.... after, which, we return to the scene of the crime and of course the shoe shine boy/man ..... but at this time, he has a customer on the throne, and while the husband is getting his shoes shined, the wife waits patiently by his side for shoe shine boy to finish..... While he is working, I let him know I returned for my change ..... By the look on his face, I'm sure he was shocked to see me return ... I'm sure he thought he saw the last of this "stupid tourist".... first thing he does, is tell me that he has been waiting for me to return so he can give me my change, (riiiiight) then hands me a dollar, at this point I'm still a buck fifty short .... He still thinks he's going to get the best of me ..... so I hold my ground and he tells me that he's "working" (didn't stop him from giving me that buck) and I'll have to wait until he is done, by this time the people (Ecuadorians) getting the shoe shine, are wondering what is going on, so I tell them that he is trying to charge me 1.50 at this point for the shine and of course they start looking at him, and asking him, what he is going to be charging them for a shine ..... "uuuuuuh .50" he says "then why are you charging this man 1.50"? .... I'm not, he just has to wait for his change, which I'm going to give him when I'm done with you, he just needs to be patient" ... at that point, I told him I had been patient, as I had already waited for over an hour to get my change, and I had no patience left ..... so he hands me another .50 "I'm still a dollar short" I say .... "well you need to wait" .... "no! .... I'm not waiting any longer, please give me my change so I can go" ... at this point the couple asks him, why is he doing this to me (thank you for your help) and he tells them how he did all this "extra stuff on my shoes and that it cost's more to do all the extra work" so I show them the shoes and demonstrate the fact that he didn't even do a good job  ....... (no extra work) he didn't even do the job he was supposed to do .... now they get involved and tell he shouldn't be treating me this way ..... finally, he pulls out the balance and gives it to me .... Of course I'm feeling terrible about the fact that I have to go through this whole rig-a-marol with the folks that are getting there shine done, and apologize to them for the inconvenience, but they start telling me that all is well, and they are sorry for the fact that this happened to me.... As for the shu-shine guy I told him that I had decided to have him do my shoes because I could see that in spite of the fact he had a few disabilities he was working to care for his needs and I wanted to help him, but after what he did he should be ashamed of himself........ And to think I had been waiting for over a month to get this shoe shine experience ....

And you guys think it's all fun and games down here.... ;-) Not always!