Honest Islanders

So, amidst some negative stuff coming out of Mexico, here is a little bit of reality from this little island...

I have two routers that no longer work and are beyond repair. I salvaged the power supplies and the antennas, and asked Miguel if the boxes should go in the garbage or to the recycler. I'm not sure what he decided, I think he decided 'neither', but in any case, he took them from me and put them in the little cubby compartments in the golf cart (an unlocked type of glove compartment on both sides at the front seat).

The routers have been in the golf cart for almost a week, and nobody has touched them. Miguel did see one guy pass by and do a double-take and come by again to get a better look, but then he went on his way.

The neighborhood cop came by one day and mentioned to Miguel about the routers being there and worried that they could get stolen. Miguel explained the situation to him - they are basically worthless so we don't care if someone takes them. In fact, we wish they would.

Alas, nobody has taken what looks to be valuable computer equipment. We know that if we left a screwdriver or a bungee cable in the compartment that it would have disappeared long ago. We have decided that maybe the routers look like hidden cameras or something, and people are afraid to come close in case they get caught in the act. Or maybe people are just honest!

We were out late this afternoon and had a breakdown over by the navy hospital. As Miguel fiddled with the broken cable and tried to figure out how to tie it (try tying a short piece of stiff wire to a piece of fishing line - isn't going to happen, and if it does, it's likely to accelerate so fast that we'll plow down anything in our path - good thing he didn't succeed, I think), I took off my sunglasses and placed them on the roof of the golf cart.

I should know better. When Miguel finally decided he couldn't tie the two little bits together, he told me to gather my things and get a taxi home (I am still having problems with my feet and cannot walk that distance). I picked up my raincoat and my jacket and the water jug we had on the back that we need to exchange, and went out to the main road to hail a cab.

Miguel followed on foot with Loco, and was home about 10 minutes after me. He gathered up some tools and left, planning to try to buy a part to fix the cable. After he left I wandered around the house and suddenly realized I didn't have my sunglasses (no, I didn't need my sunglasses in the house, but for some reason I thought about them). I searched several times in all the places I could think of, but did not find my sunglasses.

My sunglasses are prescription - they cost about $300 2 or 3 years ago. Not something I really want to have to replace right now. I figured I must have left the glasses on top of the golf cart. Should I write them off or hope that the honest people living here would just leave them there? I decided to go back to look for them.

I grabbed a cab and was delighted when I got to the cart and found my glasses right up on the roof where I'd left them. In 20 minutes or so, nobody had touched my glasses. This is the honesty one often experiences from the people here on this island.

Either that or they thought the router would take their picture if they touched my glasses.