You may have noticed that, as of late, I’ve been posting here more often. The reason is simple. It’s been ridiculously hot here and the little coffee place where I go to use the internet has air conditioning…

I should have a tag for my posts called “Worst Missionary Ever”…

Yes, my guys are suffering from the heat back at the house. Yes, I should be there suffering with them. Yes, I’m here eating nachos and drinking a Diet Coke. Yes, I understand that the nachos pretty much negate any weight-losing value of the Diet Coke.

Are we done?

Good, then on to other news….

I fixed the problem of getting my mirrors stolen off of my new truck. After paying nearly $100 US for new (to me but not new in general) mirrors, I decided I didn’t want to go down that road again. So I got a guy to install these little metal clips that are rivetted to the mirror housing and fit over the glass. It sounds more confusing than it is. It’s pretty common here. And it’s worked well so far…

As a side note, the buying of the mirrors was a little…sketchy, shall we say. We looked all over the place, but no one had the mirrors I needed (just the glass, not the whole mirror). Finally we found a guy that said he had them. We negotiated on the price a bit (or rather Sandro did…I just sat there looking gringo-ish and stupid) and then pretty much ended up paying what he asked, since no one else had them anyhow. Then the guy said they were at his other store and that his friend could bring them over for us in twenty minutes.

So we sat there and waited. And waited. And waited… Finally at one point Sandro looked over at me and said, “I think he’s stealing them from someone to sell to us.”

Well…that hadn’t occurred to me…

When the other guy eventually showed up, it did feel a bit weird. I don’t actually think this guy stole them for us specifically…but the way he pulled one of the mirrors only partly out of his bag and used his body to shield the transaction from people on the street, seemed to say that perhaps the mirrors were in fact not his property originally. I felt like I was buying drugs…not rearview mirrors for a Toyota Tundra.

In the end I’m not really sure. It could have just been my overactive, watched-too-much-TV-as-a-kid imagination at work. But again…didn’t really want to go down that road again. So off we went to the “automall” to get the clips.

Okay, another side note (although since I’m not really sure what the overall purpose of this post really is…other than to escape the heat…these side notes may actually be the main point…). I love going to the automall. Every time I get suckered into buying things I don’t really need, but I don’t care. It rivals Disneyland for the funnest place on earth! You drive through a gate into a parking lot that’s surrounded by little shops that sell…well, pretty much everything. Tires, rims, stereos, speakers, cool lights, window-tinting, auto parts, car mats, decals, seat-covers…I could go on. If you can imagine it for your car, someone’s got it for sale. It’s like what Canadian Tire would be if the Canadian Tire people were a bit more fun…

While I was getting the clips put on, someone expressed amazement that I didn’t have my licence plates rivetted to my truck. That seemed like a good idea. That led to someone else suggesting I get all the plastic “Toyota” and/or “Tundra” emblems on my truck rivetted as well. That also seemed like a good idea. I also bought floor mats and a cool steering wheel cover thingy.

Before you get too concerned about where your “support the missionary” money is going, the whole shebang cost me just under $20. Tell me where you can get that kind of bang for your buck eh? =) And for sure those plastic Toyota emblems get stolen here all the time. I watched a kid pretend to wash the back window of a Landcruiser once, all the while wrenching the Toyota emblem off the truck. I was two lines over in traffic and couldn’t really do anything. It happened too fast.

Like I said before, everything has a price.

All I can say now to potential thieves is…good luck buddy. Try to rip the “Toyota” off my truck and the fender’s going with you. While I was waiting for the rivetter guy, I noticed that someone else was installing metal bands over their signal lights to stop people from stealing them. That too seemed like a good idea…but unfortunately I’d run out of money. However, the tires on my truck are pretty much on their last lives, so maybe when I go back to buy new ones…

One more day in the life of Missionary Ken…

PS  In case you think too badly of me, I’m only hanging out here in the air conditioning for an hour or so before I’m back to suffering with everyone else…  =)