And, in case any readers are wondering, I haven't forgotten about my promise to give an update on each child here.....but I guess I'll do a few of these random posts in between those.
So, a few weeks ago (it feels like months and months ago, so much has happened since then!), we went away for a night to celebrate our 21st anniversary. We went hiking on paths all around the lodge, which backs up to the rainforest, sat by a roaring fire in the main lodge, ate tasty food, read books at our leisure and enjoyed talking uninterrupted. Paradise.
Until the last hour of the trip, we had a wonderful time.
Tim became violently ill just before we were supposed to leave, and we ended up having to stay another night, with him sick the whole time, poor thing.
We had another bummer on top of him being sick, as well. Call is cross cultural miscommunications, or call it just a total drag, but we ended up spending money we did NOT have budgeted for our anniversary. The manager of the lodge was very concerned for Tim's welfare and came to ask me how he was doing. When I told him, he shook his head sympathetically and told me he could drive him to the hospital nearby, assuring me it was very good. I laughed and told him he didn't have to convince me, because we worked at that hospital, and Tim was the surgeon there! I knew it was good!
But, I explained Tim could not travel right then, because he was just too sick. We would have to wait a few hours and hope he became well enough for the drive home. The manager then graciously took out his business card and told me, "You need to stay another night so he can rest. Take my card, and if anyone asks you, simply tell them that I said you will stay another night. And if there is anything we can do for you, please just let us know."
Wow! I was elated! I told him thank you for his generosity and went back to the room to tell Tim the good news that our room had been comp'd and we could stay another night. He could hardly be happy about it, he was too sick. But he grunted something that told me he understood. The next day, when we went to check out, it turned out that two nights were on our bill! I asked about this, explaining there had been a mistake, that the manager had comp'd me on the second night.
When the manager came to answer our questions, he shook his head and said, "No. I did not. I simply told you that you needed to stay. I told you we would do anything to help you. This is our hospitality. We always provide for your needs here. But I did not say you could stay at no charge. This is not what I said."
I thought about it and felt like such a fool. He hadn't said that. I just assumed it was what he meant.
Ouch. There was nothing to do but pay the bill, but you can imagine it left a rather bad taste in our mouths. Maybe God was trying to help cure us of our love for nice hotels! We won't be going back.
Live and learn, I guess. Anyway, it was still a special anniversary, and what matters is that we have each other and we are so glad about that.
Here are some pictures from earlier, when we were having a great time. Lucky for you, I have no pictures of the gruesome part! :)
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