ROBBED!! (again)

Friday 04.02.11

Well today is definitely going down as the most disastrous day thus far.  We had a bit of shopping to do for the house so headed towards Nakumatt on a matatu.  Unfortunately, we had a bit of cash with us because of the amount of shopping we were planning to do.  After jumping off the matatu, Tammi realised her wallet was not in her bag, to which my first thought was “good one, she has left it at home again!”.  Then I remembered that Tammi paid for the matatu when we boarded.

In hindsight, Tammi remembers another passenger getting off a few stops before us.  He took his time to squeeze past her and made as though there was less room than there actually was.  Tammi’s wallet was in her bag but it was not zipped up, so in the distraction it seems that he just grabbed it out and off he went.

It was a devastating blow, particularly as money is tight for the Upinde Centre at this early stage where a lot of costs are being outlaid to set up the orphanage.  There was about $AUD250 cash in the wallet.  We also realised her bank card, drivers licence and all the business cards she had collected from contacts were in there also.  The most crippling loss was the bank card, as I was already unable to draw from my bank after cancelling my credit card thanks to the episode at Barklays, for which I have still not been reimbursed.

Tammi and I panicked for a few hours struggling to think of how we were going to survive on the approximately $AUD40 that I had in my wallet.  We managed to get onto Bec in Sydney and she said she would try to do a Western Union money transfer overnight and hopefully we could pick it up in the morning tomorrow.  Ivan also offered to transfer some money using MPesa, a mobile phone money account system used to transfer money between friends.

So we spent the day at the house, having little money to do anything and not wanting to use what we did have.  We sewed a few more curtains and watched a DVD with dinner and had an early night.