Starting off with 'at least no one was hurt' is never really a good way to start a story. But, in this case, saying so is a serious understatement of how badly the situation could have otherwise ended. So, in all honesty, I am thankful for how things turned out, and the fact that at least no one was hurt.
Yesterday, Thursday, I spent the morning from about 8-10.30 or so at the Tanzanian police station near the airport. I was there, along with Jory and a girl we met name Nora from Germany, to get a police report of what happened so I can claim the insurance on the things that were stolen from me. Yes, within an hour of arriving in Tanzania, I was robbed.
Jory met me at the airport at 2.30 am on Thursday. At the airport, Jory had befriended Nora, who was there waiting for someone who was supposed to meet her but didn't show for some reason (we later found out that he arrived just after we left, and had some problems at the hotel which kept him from getting to the airport on time). We left the airport on foot, as the hotel we were staying at was not too far away. We crossed the street, walked down a lit street with people standing around, lights and the like.
Before I move on, I would just like to say that Jory has been here for 10 months, and this has nevber happened to him. People in Tanzania do not like thieves at all...and if they catch them, will usually have a citizens arrest, or simply kill them. So robbing people, including tourists, is risky.
Anyways, we were walking, and as we took one last step, four or five guys jumped out of the darkness, and told us to give them our money. One guy was waving around a machete. I was in shock. I have read both of Romeo Dallaire's books on the Rwandan genocide and on child soldiers, which includes first hand stories about people using machete's, and I must tell you that reading about it does absolutely no justice to experiencing this first hand. I was fucking scared.
Jory was carrying my large backpack with all my clothes, shoes, and toiletries, and little else. He was also carrying one of Nora's bags with her toiletries and some clothes. Nora, smartly, took off in the other direction. Jory gave up both bags, and two guys rummaged through my pockets. I had my passport and money inside my t-shirt, and held the water bottle to my chest to protect it while they went through my pockets. After Jory gave up his wallet and phone, and they took my wallet from my pocket, we both booked it back the way we came.
Jory was unhurt, Nora was unhurt and I was unhurt, and we were all in shock. I had lost all of my clothes, except what I was wearing and one more shirt I had with me. I kept my passport, my cash, camera, sunglasses, hat, toothbrush and deoderant, which were in my knapsack. And Nora only lost her toiletries and some clothes. Everything is entirely replaceable, and no one was hurt. I am still in shock now, but am so thankful that they did not get any of my documents, or hurt anyone. Seeing that, and being involved in that, is truly an experience that can not be imagined or told about. I know from reading about it and watching movies, how unreal those really are now. Looking back, there is absolutely no way I could pick anyone of the people out of a lineup, despite looking directly at two guys going through my pockets. I am only pretty sure the guy with the machete was wearing a red shirt. All I remember is that he was there, had a machete, and ran away with my backpack of clothes. Going through something like this puts life in perspective.
After that, the three of us took a second to calm down, and a taxi came and took us to our hotel. Nora stayed with us in our room, and the three of us squished in under the mosquito net, sleeping across the double mattress sideways. And by sleep, I mean laid there unable to sleep. We made small talk most of the night, and finally got about an hours rest from 6-7 am.
The next morning we went to the police station to make a report, which in itself is another story,. but not one that really needs telling;. Things in Tanzania move incredibly slowly, so spending 2.5 hours to do this was quick. And we also know that in all likelihood, absolutely nothing will ever come of it. Now, some people somewhere are wearing my shoes, shirts, clothes and snorkel. They have eaten my granola bars, sold my sandals, and are wearing a really nice rain jacket that was given to them by Allied Salvage and Metals (1985) Ltd. They also have some really nice winter socks and long underwear. I hope they use it to climb Kilimanjaro like I was going to; they certainly don't need it in Dar es Salaam where it is fucking hot.
Moving on. I now have one bag, and will we wearing much of the same clothes for the next month. I will share with Jory, and in fact am currently wearing his boxers and t-shirt, and have been wearing the same pair of shorts since I boarded the plane on June 28th. Awesome. Today we went to the Canadian embassy in the morning, as I needed to call and cancel my credit cards and debit cards. Normally this can be done by calling them collect and they will accept the charges. However it is not possible to call collect from Tanzania. So we went to the embassy to see if they knew how to, or could help. Guess what neither me nor Jory remembered...it is Canada Day today!!! Yay!!! Happy Canada Day!! Woohoo! I actually brought a couple small Canadian flags to give away, and today we can wave them around and....oh wait....they were in my bag. And Canada Day means the Canadian embassy is closed and there is no one there...happy fucking Canada Day...
It actually worked out. A German woman who works for CIDA was going in to get some work done, so she invited us in and let us use her phone to cancel my cards. I was unable to call my parents as we were only supposed to have one phone call and used two, but had a great conversation with the woman who was there, and in fact Jory had met her when he was here two years ago traveling! Small world! So that was nice.
After that we met some friends and went to this trade fair thing, which was pretty lame. Then me and Jory went to a market-ish place, and I bought new socks, underwear, a Tanzania soccer jersey, a bathing suit and a pair of sandals. For Kilimanjaro, the climb includes clothing, so I will be fine for that. And on the safari, I will simply be wearing what I got. It is entirely possible that I travel for a month in Tanzania and won't even have a bag to check in when I leave. Crazy!
And that brings me to now. The computers here are pretty slow so I am not going to try to upload any pictures yet...also I dont think they have USB ports...but they do have floppy disk drives...that's neet.
Because of that story I didn't get to any of the other things that happened, as they were clearly dwarfed by getting robbed by a guy with a machete. So here are some other events:
-for the second time in a row, my video on a Lufthansa flight was broken. My flight from Frankfurt to Addis Ababa was 7 hours long. Luckily I was tired and slept, and read my book. They gave me a 25 Euro gift certificate for on-board duty free, which was nice, and was in my wallet. I hope the guy who robbed me flies Lufthansa so he can make use of it.
-the day before I left, I sprained my ankle playing Ultimate. Now I am hobling around, and trying to let it rest as much as possible before climbing Kilimanjaro, which is in just less than 2 weeks.
-There are many, many Germans here.
I think that is all for now. I am healthy, happy and safe now, and at least no one was hurt.
Sincerely,
Elliot S. Weinstein
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