Locked out!

I told my roommate that I would be going out for breakfast, but then decided to quickly clean some clothes. I left the door open to the area used for washing clothes (between house and stairs leading to the roof) and sat down to hand wash a bucket full of clothing.
It is a shame (in a way) that we are so reliant on machines to wash our clothes. Hand washing can be very engrossing and almost a meditation.
I looked towards the door and found it was closed. I had a bit of a feeling what happened but figured I would work it out in a bit. I continued to wash my clothes.
Close to finishing the wash I decided to check the door. Sure enough it was locked!
Still not panicking I decided I would finish the clothes and off and on knock on the door to try to attract attention.
I finished washing and hanging the clothes but still could not manage to alert my roommate to the situation. I looked at the side of the building and saw it would be fairly easy to climb half way down. I knew that I had the key, maybe I could hang by my hands to the ledge and swing down, or I might be able to attract someones attention. There were people in the lot next door, building a house, but I didn't want to bother them because I knew their English was very bad and it would be hard to explain what was happening.
I climbed to the ledged and looked down. Just as I did, the woman who owns the house turned around (from the gate) and saw me. As you can imagine she was very suprised to see me, and asked me what happened.
It took me several minutes to explain the situation but eventually I was able to drop the key to her and have her open the main house door, walk upstairs and then open the door to the cleaning area!
All was fine, I talked to my roommate and she said she wondered why it was opened (I imagine she thought I had already departed for breakfast) and closed/locked it!