Gone

We discovered over the weekend that a propane tank attached to our grill was taken from our roof. Our roof is flat and is almost like a patio area above the house. There is a gate that is normally kept shut so that the dogs can't get up on the roof (they tend to bark at everything from up there) and that is why the thief was able to climb up on our roof from the street and take the tank. The dogs (especially the big German Sheperd) tend to scare away the "riff-raff" that might want to come into the yard but they weren't able to get at whoever came on the roof the other day. Needless to say, that gate is now open and the dogs are allowed on the roof to bark at and scare away anybody who dares climb onto our roof again!!

Praise God that it was only a propane tank - those can be sold for about $20 or $30 which is a couple of days' wages for some people here. There is also a storage shed up there that holds all of our shipment (waiting for the day we have our own house to put it in) and many things belonging to the family that lives here. The lock wasn't locked - we must have forgotten to re-lock it last time we were in there - but the thief must not have seen it! The loss could have been much greater, so we're grateful.

Still, being "robbed" sure does make a person feel crummy. This sort of thing is extremely common here - we've been lucky over the past year and a half not to have experienced this yet. It was a big deal to me...until I talked with a "veteran" missionary. I told her with wide eyes that somebody stole our propane tank and she said in an extremely bored voice "oh, they've been on your roof, huh?" There was no sympathy and certainly no shock. That was when I realized that this is just part of the life that we signed on for! Lesson learned - chain and lock everything down, even if it seems like something people wouldn't want...unless, of course, you have some junk you'd like to get rid of!! --Becca