Lying on his stomach, I blinked down to the sea on the small sand dune, and I noticed a young woman who had a gaunt, haggard, but very toned body. The young mother looked after especially to the youngest of her four children. Now and then jumped in my limited frame as a little man with a thick diaper package at the hands of the mother out of the water in the air. I watched it, like jumping from fishing or fly the gulls.
After a few hours we packed up, and the children ran bravely forth in her white beach dress behind the nut.
A few minutes later, this peaceful formation abruptly changed. The mother came to the little son in her arms, the other children behind her constantly, return to the beach. Sweat ran down her face. She asked with an American accent, "Excuse me has anyone seen a black wallet? I was just at the grocery store, and she was no longer in my backpack. "
It turned out that the mother had to have been robbed before my eyes. She had gone into the water and thought she could leave her rucksack in two meters lying in the sand. I had seen all the time on the sea, but had, as I lay on my stomach, not the entire angle. About half a meter behind the beach was steep dune hidden ...
We dug in the sand, looked in all waste container, the police came. We made in lightning speed a food collection, foreigners and Spaniards. A loaf of black bread, Erdnussflipps, potato chips, a tortilla.
Several credit cards, driver's license, insurance card, passport, 200 euros and 200 dollars was gone.
Spanish police referred to the bus. So I drove the woman together with their children in the nearest town to the police in order to confirm the indicator and, above all, to request the telephone numbers of the American consulate and the embassy, because the credit had to be closed.
The woman was eerily quiet. One friend had something similar happened about a year ago: She had been swiped her entire purse out of the car trunk, and she suffered a complete mental breakdown at the beach. But such a thing could be the American in front of their four children not afford.
On the way we had time to talk. The key to the apartment had not been stolen, fortunately. The fridge was also some fruit and juice. Yes, the family came from the United States. The husband had just received a new job in Amsterdam. The only reason they would ever even be able to go on vacation. A part of her family had Spanish roots. Her husband had not found a home and am still living in a hotel with a friend. His phone number was in the wallet. To the name of the hotel they just could not remember ...
Her husband had previously worked for the Catholic Church, which would have paid nothing. Then he would have found and helped in America to close branches of the company this job. Therefore, he had now received the job in Holland, he could take over of a woman who had retired. Life in the USA is difficult. When she was pregnant with her fourth child, (as it must have been 43 years old), it was impossible to obtain health insurance.
"In the first 11 my husband will be unemployed again." "How do you feel about that?" "Well, he has a pleasant personality, and he has studied, has a good education. If we are lucky, there are three months severance money. Luckily we both have family. In the worst case I have to try to work. "
"With four children?" I asked. In the car it smelled now after diaper and blood. The mother's beach shirt had become discolored, and her son had lost in the excitement of his sandals. Meanwhile, we had arrived at the police station. I translated, and the policeman put us through to the consulate. The mother spoke in a low voice while she was nursing the youngest, because he had started to cry from exhaustion.
The Consulate stressed several times that it was not willing to help out with money. No money! The expected and not the American. She just wanted to help because of credit cards. She received an emergency number.
The next day, sympathetic woman thanked for all spontaneous help, and she stressed brave and collected, how much good from this emergency situation is still up.
I silently thought that the world really need urgently Americans who are not so very brave and adopted if they are deprived and exploited ...
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