It's a room that's connected to the house by walls, but with its own exterior exit. Technically, it's called the "maid's quarters" here, but it's essentially a 7'x10' storage room for us. The door for it has no bars, so access is easy knocking in a wooden door. We're gringos, so there's an automatic target on us...not for racist reasons, but because in the eyes of the general population all Americans are millionaires. They probably don't realize we're broke missionaries
. That certainly doesn't justify theft, but explains the mentality behind it. Since we're assumed to be wealthy, prevailing perception would be that we'd not be impacted by it. We live in an Urbanizacion rather than the Barrio, so the neighborhood is quiet and safe for the most part. Our friends have been here for 10 months and this is the first issue. I feel relatively safe.
