Although we don’t receive training in it, breaking and entering seems to be a pivotal part of the Peace Corps experience. First the all-inclusive resort, and now, none other than the house of another volunteer. I was visiting my boyfriend in his site over the weekend, and we decided to go down the street for a barbecued hotdog – a fancy campo date, to be sure. When we arrived back at the house, we played a familiar game: “Do you have the key? No you do”. It’s always him, but this time, he had left it inside the house, and as we had padlocked the door from the outside, we found ourselves in a bit of a pickle. Having no other option, he decided to try to break down the side door, which we perceived to be the weakest entry to the house. After giving it two solid kicks, we decided the little palm-board house was going to come down before the door did; nice to know he lives in a secure home, but I must say an inconvenient time to figure it out.
Both of us working hard not to panic (locksmiths aren’t exactly on call out here), I realized that although the door was padlocked, if you pushed on it, it still opened about three inches before the lock caught, and what to my wondering eyes did appear in the line of sight those three inches provided but the key! It was hanging on a nail on the wall about 7 feet from the crack in the door. Ever the eco-friendly environmental volunteer, my solution was… “Hey! Let’s pull up that skinny baby tree and see if we can reach the key!” This worked surprisingly well, and within 5 minutes we were indoors sitting on two plastic lawn chairs (one of which I broke the next day - long story. Actually, it’s really not; I’m just a clutz.) surprised and satisfied with our ingenuity.
To quote an exasperated homeowner: “I really can’t keep that key there anymore.”
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