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Friday, March 26, 2010

Berets and Rants


There's the slip stitch beret I've been making for my sister (hey, Chip, it's done) and there's my early morning face with evidences of my early morning allergies. I'm one of those people who wake up with a cold, which gradually clears as the day progresses. That's kind of weird as I'm a morning person. I like waking up early and accomplishing as many things as possible before most people wake up. Anyway, things must have come to a pretty pass if I'm bravely posting pics of my ungroomed face (if anybody cares, I had already brushed my teeth) and unkempt hair (not that there's much difference, really). I just wanted to show off the beret, this mass of knotted brown yarn I'd been painstakingly putting together with my arthritic fingers (I swear I must be at the beginning stage - gotta take care of that, my mom is a cautionary tale, she has a hard time crafting now - pls ignore the shamefully erroneous punctuations). I wanted to finish the beret before the Holy Week as Chip intended to use it during our church camp in Tagaytay. Now, because of incompetence, greed, and other horrible qualities, we now have to scramble for a new camp venue.
If I may just vent a little...
Since last year, my dad has been in talks with the management of this campsite in Tagaytay. I think the first time he went there, he was told that the place was already taken for the dates we wanted, but when he followed it up, he was told that the group that was supposed to rent it was no longer pushing through since they had already built their own campsite. Good for us. The next time my dad went there, he already gave them a down payment for which they issued him a receipt. That was early this year. Our camp starts on Wednesday next week. Tuesday this week, Dad went to the venue to check on the facilities again, make sure things are ready for the camp. It was to my dad's shock and immense dismay that he was told that they had already given the place to another bigger group, which is three times our size. Ding, ding, ding - that is supposed to be a cross between an alarm and the sound of a cash register. :( Bad enough that they reneged on their transaction with my dad, they had the NERVE to pass the blame on to my dad... allegedly they couldn't contact my dad, allegedly my dad didn't go back to confirm... Could we just point out that the transaction was done? They issued no conditions, nothing about returning in a month's time to finalize or something like that.  Nothing, zilch, nada... There's a receipt from them supporting this. The amount was not a reservation fee. It was for the down payment! But, wait, the plot thickens! They then altered their story. Oh, it's not actually about the lack of confirmation. It's just that they had overlooked the earlier reservation of this bigger group. Ridiculous! That reservation was scribbled on some scrap paper while our church's name was officially marking the pertinent dates on their official calendar. And, come ONnnnn. Overlook a reservation for that much business? Who'd believe that? Why couldn't they just admit that they were blinded by the promise of a bigger revenue from that bigger group, that it was just too good to pass up, so they had to sacrifice us, the smaller group apparently of no consequence? I mean, that would be understandable. It's not like they're this Christian mission-related campsite and not just a business venture through and through... Oh, hang on. Right. They are in fact a Christian campsite run by pastors. Oh hey wait, did I forget to mention that the perpetrators of this wrongdoing are ordained pastors? Infuriating and saddening at the same time, no? My dad doesn't know I'm blogging about this. He wouldn't approve. As far as he's concerned, God will take care of things. That's true, of course, but I need to let this out. I know there's a part (or several) of the fruit of the Spirit that's not at work in me right now, but I felt so sorry for my 63-year-old father who traveled all the way to Tagaytay from Marikina just for some reconnaissance of sorts only to receive this, believe it or not, heartbreaking news. And no, those pastors haven't returned the down payment yet. Why should they? Forget the fact that they're a Christian mission campsite. Any respectable, religious or otherwise, business wouldn't have pulled what this group had pulled on us. If they're capable of baling on a legitimate, supposedly binding transaction, they're probably not above pocketing an amount, meager though it may be, that no longer belongs to them. That group of professing Christians, pastors at that, wronged us. They essentially broke their word to my father and then tried to make him appear as the one in error (they can insist as much as they want about their idea of confirmation, it wouldn't make their justification valid), they belittled our church, and they intended (if they consciously reneged on the done deal, then it was intentional) to derail God's activity. I hope they realize what they had done and repent accordingly.
Rant over.
As to the new venue, we're still looking for one. God will provide.

4 comments:

lalab said...

oh! give me the camp site's number! let me call them! grrrrrrrrrrr! it's not fair at all! knowing pastor, i know he'll just put this all in God's care but business is business and the church got that reservation first and even gave them the down payment as you said..... it can't be! is there anything else to be done? what's the name of the camp site? oh, i know how bad this is.. yes, the Lord will vindicate us, i know, but they should be responsible with their actions....let them find a place for us since they ditched us this way. grrrrr! it melts my heart even if i won't make it.. this is sad.. they're mean!

spinninglovelydays said...

they offered to make us stay in tents (and co-camp with that bigger group, something like second class citizens, hmph). the reason why we opted for their place early on is because we wanted to be more comfortable. i don't have their number.

Sharkbytes (TM) said...

Love the berets! and hope your camp venue gets sorted out. Have a great time.

spinninglovelydays said...

Thanks, Sharkbytes :)