Day 19: The Bastards Stole from Me!

Well, some serious shit hit the fan today.

Remember how I said I noticed that about $3.00 in riels were missing, yesterday? I'm not gonna beat around the bush: I was robbed. I know that, because my heirloom gold diamond ring is also missing from my apartment.

I know you're going to say, "You need to be more careful with your things, Holyrockthrower." Just like my mom. Well, the truth is a little more complex than that.

I did in fact take everything of value with me to the downstairs apartment, or else I locked it up in my drawers, just in case. The exception was the mass of 100-riel bills, which frankly I'm glad someone stole, seeing that each bill was worth about 2.5 cents. The other exception was the gold ring--it wouldn't fit on my finger, since my finger was more puffy and swollen than it used to be. Because I was in a hurry at the time, I wedged it between some things on my dresser.

I was told specifically that I would be gone for exactly two weeks while the people replaced the stairs. REPLACED THE STAIRS. That means they literally demolished the steps; no one could really go up or down; even if they did, my door was double locked and, like my windows, was covered in iron bars. I and my landlady are the only folks with a key; everything would be safe and sound, I was reassured.

That was before my landlady decided to remodel the upstairs apartment (without notifying me). Thus, my apartment was left open and vulnerable. Thank God, I had all my electronics and RMB locked up with the keys thrown away!

As I see it, a total of five people were working in my apartment:

1. A guy replacing the toilet and sink.
2. Another guy replacing the toilet and sink.
3. A cleaner.
4. My landlady's daughter.
5. My landlady.

One of the above is thus the guilty party. I strongly suspect it was not my landlady or her family, but just as I don't want want to point fingers about this, I also don't hold anyone above suspicion.

This event is certainly not the end of the world, but it is irritating. I don't actually put that much stock in material possessions--I'm less upset that the ring is gone than I am by the fact that it happened.

Mostly, I feel very sad and disappointed by it. Mind you, what I thought was sadness erupted into extreme rage against my friend when he gave me the "naïve American" lecture. Frankly, I'm not naive. If anything, I'm cynical, and tired of being taken advantage of and treated like a walking ATM. It doesn't matter! We can take anything we want! She's obscenely wealthy!!

As machines, ATMs have no compassion or mercy; right now, this ATM is truly, truly afraid of what she might do to the next person who asks for money. Because understand me: Beyond the comfortable middle-class salary (by Cambodian standards, not American standards) I am paid as a teacher, I have nothing. Nothing. No family, no friendships, no car, no motorbike, no trust in mankind, no health. I don't even have the money to go back to America, which I very badly want to do right now.