The Lost Keys

The craziest thing happened me today, let me share.

We had gone in the morning to with the whole team to evangelize door by door in Salcedo, which is on the outskirts of town. We evangelized for a bit then we ate lunch. After lunch we took a combi (small bus) from Salcedo to Rinconada, which is even further outside of town. It’s about a 3 minute ride in a combi, (below is a picture of a typical combi) and we were the only ones in the combi. I paid for all of us, and as I took out my money to pay, my keys also slipped out without me knowing. The keys that I lost included 2 sets of church keys, house keys, and a spare motorcycle key. This was at about 2:00.

About a minute after I got out of the combi, I realized that I didn’t have my keys. So I ran after the bus, but I didn’t actually have sight of the bus (had I thought on my feet, I should’ve gone the other way and waited for it to turn around.)

I had to think hard about what that combi looked like because there are a huge variety of buses that go from one part of the city to another. All I knew is that the sign on the combi said “SALCEDO” in big letters and “rinconada” in small letters and that the lady who took the money was wearing a pink sweater. That’s it. I thought I knew what the car looked like, but I really had no idea.

I rushed back down to Salcedo to wait for the same combi to go around the whole city and come back to that spot. All I was looking for were those letters and that sweater. Probably about 200 combis passed by as I waited for about an hour and a half.

I gave up as the combis whizzed by, and it was already 3:30 and we were to have membership class at 4:00. No luck, and I didn’t even know what the combi actually looked like.

We did the membership class from 4 to 5 and talked a bit afterwards until about 5:30. Afterwards, I told Geremías “Let’s go to the central market to make copies of your keys for me and get some Api.” (Api is a special snack here in Puno.) He said that sounded good and off we went in a combi.

As we were getting close to the central market, right in the middle of the city we passed dozens of combis, but one caught my eye. A lady was standing up inside it with a pink sweater on. As we went by, I noticed that the letters were the same. But the model of the bus wasn’t the same that I thought it was so I had my doubts. We got to the central market, and I waited for that combi with a small hunch. I was about to stop waiting when it pulled up, now packed with people.

It stopped because I waived it down, and the lady in the pink sweater got off in order to let me in. I didn’t recognize her at first, and I almost didn’t say anything. I asked her, “Did you find some keys?” She said yes quite firmly and my immediate thought was “Is ‘Keys’ a place in Puno?” I asked her again and she said yes firmly and then she asked the driver for the keys they had found.

He handed her the keys, over the people in the packed combi, and it was like slow motion to me. They were my keys!! What were the chances of that? In a city of about 100,000 people, I find this one bus in the middle of the city. I didn’t know what to do, I wanted to hug her but then thought of paying her but I didn’t have any money. I smiled big and thanked her, and then boom they sped off.

I looked at Geremías and slapped him in the chest and screamed at him “CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?!” We still got Api in the central market. Haha a great ending to my day!!