After my sister's funeral, I am physically and emotionally near the breaking point. I planned to rest for a couple of days. But I spent much of last night and most of today taking care of a friend's business. It went like this:
Helena is a Chinese American psychologist. After the Sichuan earthquake last year, she and her entire family moved to the earthquake area to do volunteer work. They plan to be there for 5 to 10 years. I have worked with her extensively on this.
Last week, she went on a business trip to Madrid, Spain. Last night, I got an SOS email from her. She lost her purse\wallet and the hotel is holding her passport until she could settle her bills. Her flight out of Madrid is tomorrow.
Requiring someone to pay the bill before they can go is normal. BUT, the hotel also would not let her use the phone, use the internet, or have access to any means to contact anyone. This is plainly stupid. Last night she got the manager to allow her to use the Internet for 5 minutes, and sent me an email. But they would only give her another 5 minutes to use the Internet this morning.
This morning, I used Western Union to send her $3500. As a foreigner, she needed to take her passport in order to receive the money. The hotel would not let her have her passport. And they would not send someone to go with her. Finally, she went herself and convinced the manager at the Western Union to call the hotel. In the end she got her money.
I felt like I just negotiated the release of a hostage. She's near a breakdown now. She's been held for 2 days, with them giving her a piece of bread and a glass of water once in a while. She was hardly treated with any sense of humanity.
She said she will NEVER go near Spain again.
