After losing my British SIM card a few weeks back, I now find myself with no phone at all. Last night we went out for a few drinks again, visiting a bar we have not yet been to. As I walked in I felt something at my pocket, and quickly put my hand in my pocket as it seemed someone was trying to slide my phone out. Shortly after I felt a hand in my back pocket, fortunately I had nothing in that pocket but I moved away quickly anyway. After this I was trying to keep as aware as possible, but it seems I let my guard down at some point as I checked my pocket later to find my phone was gone. One of the other guys also had his wallet stolen, with a couple of thousand shillings, debit card, drivers licence and social security number, I guess I got lucky!
The bouncer on the door was quite helpful, apparently someone had reported seeing a guy run off with a wallet, a guy who had later returned, and so the bouncer called for a cab, taking us, the person accused and the person accusing to the local police station. Not really where I wanted to be at 5am. As we gave statements to the police, and they searched the guy and hit him with a stick, we began to wonder whether this really was the guy. All we had as evidence was the word of a random Kenyan girl (who we later decided was quite likely a prostitute). We told the guy if he can get our phone and wallet back, we wouldn't take it any further, but as the police continued to hit him with a stick, he showed no sign of wanting to help us get it back. Either he was innocent and this girl had something against him, or he just doesn't care and doesn't want to confess. We are kind of worried that we've really ruined someone's day, but the police and bouncer assure us this is not the first time they've had such dealings with him. I guess the main thing is we have a crime reference number and hopefully the travel insurance will cover it.
This comes just a few days after I and another volunteer were almost mugged. I say almost, I don't think they were serious muggers, more just trying their luck hoping we would get scared and give them everything with little effort on their part. They approached us, demanding 'give us something', we explained we had just come from the pub and had no money left, as we are simply poor volunteers, not rich mzungus that they seem to think all white people are. They felt my pockets, asking what was in there, I took out my wallet and showed them the few shilling coins I had, and my phone, which they made no attempt to take from me, leading me to think they weren't serious muggers. We continued talking to them for a while, explaining why we have nothing to give, they asked if we were going to try to run, I guess trying to make us feel intimidated. Eventually they asked what we do as volunteers, teach in Kibera. 'Oh we live in Kibera, you are helping us!' They then shook our hands and somehow we became best of friends.
Hopefully that and the pick pocketing is the worst we'll experience in our time here, else I'll be beginning to wonder whether extending my trip was a good idea!
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