dupe?

the last time i wrote, i was
"out of breath," "irate," "here in Mwanza," and "not just irate, [but] also sad."

fast forward to about 30 minutes after i left the internet cafe two days ago.
new descriptives: i was 'confused' 'pissed off' and 'felt like a chump'

i haven't gotten a chance to write about it, and my feelings have subdued, but given how passionately i wrote my last entry i felt i had better write a follow-up to explain change of sentiments.... [if you haven't read the entry previous to this one, you better stop and go read it before continuing]

by the time i got in the car to head back to Misungwi, i had started replaying the whole scene in my mind. something felt not right, and it wasn't just a sense of despair about human compassion, responsibility, and the like. something didn't seem to fit.

where had i heard about something like this happening before? i couldn't put my finger on it...
through some sort of intervention [though not divine, since i don't believe in that sort of thing], i happened to be staring blankly out the window of the car and saw someone walk by in a University of Chicago sweatshirt.

my first thought was - 'HEY, U of C! Sweet!' my second thought was 'YO dude, it's freakin roasting out, why are you wearing a sweatshirt?!' and my third thought was 'BING'

I had figured it out.
In Chicago we had gotten repeated warnings about a popular scam. That's right, a scam. I don't remember how it went, something about someone approaching you and wanting to split a bunch of money they found if you are willing to help them [part of this help means going to the bank and withdrawing lots of your own money - DUH, warning lights and sirens going off, right? right, that's why I never really paid attention and can't remember more details of this scam]

so the details stumped me, but i had already seen the light - could that whole emotional incident actually have been the work of 2 partners-in-crime trying to rip me off? i tried to work out how the scenario might go:

1) simple distraction: i'm most familiar with this from stories of small children in Rome [gypsies], but i'm sure it's pretty popular tactic worldwide. as i'm pleading with this guy to return the cash, he, or one of his buddies, pickpockets me or makes a move for my backpack.

NOPE, wasn't missing anything [wasn't carrying much either, but since I'm white I'm as good a target as anyone]

2) the set-up: i've heard about this with drugs in northern african countries. a dealer and a cop work together, the dealer sells you illegal drugs ridiculously cheap, then the cop busts you right away and they split the big bribe you're forced to dole out. could this have been similar, but
trying to split up stolen money instead?

NOPE: 1st, if you buy into the 'white people have money' preconception that is a driving motivation behind scenario one (which I do), why would some random white dude need to split a few extra bucks with someone he met on the street?! and 2, what police officer would believe an unemployed random Tanzanian dude over a white employee of a well-known NGO? [sad but true]. The case wouldn't stick, and the bribe would suck. I would give up, lets say, another mechanical pencil.

3) hook, line and sinker: the finder of the money offers to go and split it up with you if you don't tell, but of course to do this you'd better go someplace private. once you're there, and probably after realizing that it was actually one big bill rubber-banded around a wad of plain paper, he holds you up and you're left without shoes, pants, or a clue.

BINGO: this seems like the most logical choice, and sure enough, last night I confirmed with a neighbor that he has had this sort of thing happen to him before [seeing someone drop a big chunk of cash, and then recieving an offer to split it, which he turned down having already heard the stories].



Ugh, once i had heard this confirmation, i felt sick. because i don't like being duped. and i don't like feeling stupid. but at the same time, i felt mad. why? because the shmucks who did this were pretty piss-poor scam artists, and that's how i've now internally justified my naivety. I would've figured the scam out, except they ran it so poorly i had no idea what is was!!!
evidence:

1) the guy who picked up the cash never offered to split it with me. maybe they had planned poorly, and didn't mean to target a white guy? and he was shocked? or maybe they had picked me out but then he got flustered [maybe he was a virgin to this particular operation] and decided to back out? either way, had he told me "yo dude lets go split this up in that alley over there" i like to think that I would've been NOT AN IDIOT and figured out what was going on...

2) the guy who dropped the cash turned back and started looking for it. one key element to this scam is that he's just supposed to keep walking. if he turns back, we have the opportunity, which we acted on, to return the money. if the money is returned, the scam has failed. he should've kept walking and left it to his buddy to try to reel me in.

3) this all happened right in front of a newspaper stand, and i distinctly rememer making eye contact with at least 2-3 other guys when i grabbed the finder by the hand to follow the loser and return the money. is this really a scam you would pull in front of such a large audience, unless perhaps they ALL were part of it?! I wouldn't think so, especially in Tanzania - you see, being a thief here can be lucrative, but also pretty freaking dangerous. If someone shouts 'thief', it usually ends up in huge gang of idle young men suddenly mobilized to chase down the accused as he runs away, and beat him senseless, to near death, or occasionally to death, upon catching up to him. I've been in Mwanza and seen people running down the street with, for example, a big wooden bench, hoping to use to to beat a thief into a bloody pulp. In fact, this is part of the reason I thought the finder finally agreed to follow me to return the money - if he hadn't, if he had started running now that the loser had realized he'd lost it, he might have had some trouble, to say the least. And i'm looking in retrospect here, but did it seem like those newspaper guys were smiling as they watched all this unfold, perhaps just waiting for and relishing the potential opportunity for a chase-after/beat-down?



so anyways, that leaves me pretty confused. either it was a POORLY RUN SCAM, which only worked to the effect that my sympathy got the best of me and i forked over 1,000 shillings to the finder out of pity, or it was really the incident as I first interpreted it, a case of lost and found, with a large side of ingratitude.

i was dejected after writing my last entry, thinking about the poor finder stealing the money if there's a next time, thanks to the losers ungrateful 'screw you'. i'm even more dejected now, as i expect if i ever see anyone drop a wad of cash again, i myself will probably walk right on by....

readers: thoughts? inputs?