... And then it happens. Every traveler’s nightmare moment. You reach into your pocket or purse, and your wallet is missing! My moment came as we were packing Oaxacan crafts for shipment to Chiripa. The hotel room was filled with ceramics, textiles, alebrijes and tin, as well as cardboard boxes, newpaper, bubble wrap, marking pens and packing tape. The hotel checkout deadline was in half an hour.
I had made repeated trips to buy more boxes and packing supplies, and from the last of those trips my wallet had not returned. I feared and imagined the worst. But when I asked at the little paper supply store (the one with the portable stairway that is put out on the sidewalk each morning, and taken in at night), the young woman opened a wooden drawer and pulled out a well-worn wallet. “Is this it?” she smiled. It was. Everything was there. I offered her a reward, but she declined. “It is a pleasure to help,” she smiled. -JM
