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Published: September 13th 2008
The guy jumps out behind a wall as I walk through the parking lot on a stop made through Neilspruit on our way from Joburg to Mozambique. "Gimme your bag." My eyebrows come together on my forehead in that way to say "Areyoufuckingkiddingme?" "Gimme your bag," and he pulls out a gun. "Ohshithappyto."
It was over before it even began. "MOTHERFUCKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" screams over and over in my head.
Everything. My shiny white mac, my fat Nikon SLR with lens, my Canon digital compact, my only cash in EUR, copies of my passport, credit cards, ATM cards, everything. My phone, all my phone numbers with it. He even has my PADI certification cards and my yellow fever vaccination certificate. My HSBC bank security token, so now I can't even check for movements in my accounts. All my passwords to my life are in files on my laptop. I added up a value of over 4K US lost. This guy really hit pay day with me.
Credit cards are quickly canceled, all accounts are frozen and halted. I can't even sort anything out here in Africa as HSBC has no presence whatsoever. I can't have cards mailed to me as the mail systems here are apparently extremely unreliable. I sit in shock for the rest of the ride into Mozambique. Thank god I had my passport and my wallet (with IDs, about 10 USD in rand, and now useless credit cards) in my jacket pocket.
I have no access to money now. None. I am living on debt taken out from Tony now. Losing expensive electronics sucks, thats true. Electronics are replaceable though. What is worse though, are all my original picture files and me sitting in Mozambique without the ability to capture what I see now (undescribable).
Needless to say, I have to move up my December 3 flight to Hong Kong as there is no way to travel on this continent without a cash source, so you folk will be seeing me real soon. I'm not sure what I can do to salvage my trip here until I sort everything out and get all my accounts working again. We are due back in Jozi by Sept 25. I bought a SIM card here in Mozambique and am using Todd's phone, so if you feel like calling me, incoming calls are free. I would hesitate to put a number up on public internet, but honestly nothing else can really happen to me now and I can't bother emailing everybody about the situation and contact details. +258 82 92 93 246. Go nuts.
I would like to think that I am sponsoring a small African child for about two years. Either that, or I am fueling a doubtless spectacular month for a crack addict. If the latter, I hope he OD's and dies.
Hey man, shit happens. C'est la vie. TIA. This is Africa's way of telling me I am not hard-core enough. I mean, come on I don't even have a tattoo.
At least I didn't get shot or raped or AIDS.
Still, I hope he dies.
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Eric Aubert
non-member comment
Feel sorry for you, but as you said, at least you haven't been hurt... CU in Hong Kong and try to enjoy the end of your trip... Gros bisous my goldfish!!!!!