Worst Week Ever.
3/1/10-3/7/10

Remember the MTV show Best Week Ever? Imagine Mo Rocca providing commentary of the montage of horrible events from this past week. Basically it boils down to our house cursed-literally.

It all started a week ago. My roommates all work for a British based org that runs a few different projects. The main project of the organization is an afterschool center for disadvantaged children. The director of the org is a total nutcase. Here are a few examples of the director’s lunacy: she never registered the organization in Tanzania, therefore they are operating illegally and has resisted Asa's attempts to legally register; due to the tight budget Asa switched the guard dogs’ food to a slightly cheaper brand however the director immediately made her switch back stating the dogs are as important to the center as Asa; and because the director has a bad relationship with the owner of the center’s building, she recently sat in her car in front of the gate spying on the landlord wearing a scarf covering her hair and big sunglasses. Totally crazy! This last scenario leads to our bad luck.

The landlord has made every attempt to hinder the center’s work-but only out of spite for the director. (Mind you, the director lives in England and was simply here for a wk long visit) One afternoon while the director was in town my roommates and the director were sitting on the front porch at the center. All of a sudden they heard gibberish coming from the building directly in front of the center. That building is also owned by the spiteful landlord. Kala (my roommate who speaks fluent Swahili) realized the gibberish as a voodoo curse being directed at the center! The landlord had hired a witch doctor to come and put a spell on the center. At first we all laughed at the extreme measures the landlord was going to, however more recently we’ve begun to think perhaps there is to this curse.

Asa has lived in Arusha for 1 ½ years and never lost her phone, had it stolen, or even dropped in a toilet or under a moving car (take my word, it’s easier than you’d think). Thursday morning, it managed to disappear between exiting her boyfriend’s car in our driveway and entering the house. She realized it was gone immediately and began the frantic search but it is nowhere to be found-not in the car and not in the drive nor in the house. The strange thing is that when people steal phones, they immediately put their own sim card in which therefore turns your own phone number off. However, Asa’s number continues to ring! Perhaps it hasn’t been stolen at all but been sent to the black abyss of voodooness.

That same Thursday, Kala was driving out to visit another project of the organization about a 2 hour drive outside of Arusha. On her way there the car began to make funny noises. She decided it was best to turn around and head back. As she made the Uturn, the car died. She got out of the car to push it out of the middle of the road, and was approached by several men who were there to help her. She was smart enough to put all her things in her bag and zip it up, however there was a sneaky devil in the bunch who managed to unzip her bag and steal her wallet while reaching through the driver’s window to ‘steer the car’ as the group pushed. She was then stuck in the middle of nowhere with no cash, no bankcards, no driver’s license. Luckily she did have her phone to call for help but the wallet is long gone.

On Friday as Heather and I were heading back from town we caught a dalladalla. I had to squish in the back. There’s some unwritten rule in Africa that you don’t move over to make room on a bus seat. When I climbed in, a single man was lounging on a seat made for 3-4people. I motioned for him to move over, but instead of moving over he moved his right knee about an inch which meant I was to climb over him and sit by the window. As my stop approached, I stood up, stuck my phone in my back pocket and asked the man to move again. Again, instead of getting up to let me pass he moved his knees to the side. Again I had to step over him to get off. All in one fell swoop, as I stepped with one leg over him he slid his body to the right to where I had been sitting and he spread his legs to I was trapped straddling his knees. I immediately began to shout-the F word and Jesus Christ are universal by the way. I was able to get off the bus. As I turned to cross the street and the dalla sped off, I reached for my phone and it was gone! When the man had jostled me around, he managed to slip my phone out of my pocket. Heather was still on the same dalla, so I ran up the street to a restaurant where I knew a friend would be and call her. As she started to yell at everyone on the dalla-with translation from a fellow rider-the dalla stopped. She thought they were stopping to search the passengers in the 3rd row. Instead they stopped to let people off-ironically from the 3rd row. It was gone for good.

30 minutes later as Heather was heading back to my house from Njiro, she caught another dalla up the road. After waiting a ridiculous amount of time at a single stop, she decided she would catch another dalla since all others seemed to be flying by. Just as she had told the driver she was going to get off, she stepped down with one foot and the driver hit the gas. She tumbled off into the dust.

Just when we thought nothing else could go wrong, it did. Sunday was sunny and clear, and supposed to be the start of a better week. On Saturday we were laughing about how many things had gone wrong and how Jackie had managed to escape it. In her 9months here she has never had anything stolen and never lost anything, until now. She had gone into town to the market and was on her way back. There is a specific bridge in Arusha that everyone warns is a prime spot for theft because the wooded ravine makes for an easy get-away. Just after she had safely crossed the bridge, she greeted 4 young, hip-dressed boys who were walking past her. Right then, one of them ran up to her and grabbed her. Another grabbed her bag. Even though we all would give up our bags to a thief, but your initial reaction is to cling to what you’re holding. Also because it was so unexpected she wasn’t sure how to react. Strangely enough this busy stretch of road normally has many tourists and locals walking along each side and a lot of car traffic, however somehow there was no one and no car in sight. Luckily they only took the bag and ran, but still it was quite a scary situation! She immediately ran up the road to where a security company truck is parked. After she explained the situation, they had her climb into the truck and they drove around looking for the thieves. People in the neighborhoods had seen the culprits and directed the guards to where they were. Eventually though, they lost their trail. After the fact everyone has said oh well that location is dangerous-but it was the middle of the day! She did nothing wrong, it’s the main road into town, it can’t be avoided!

We were discussing how do a group a boys or whoever suddenly decide to rob someone. If even one other person had been walking or one car driving by, this situation would never have happened. Were they waiting there for a solitary walker? From the angle of the road they couldn’t have seen her approaching for very long, so it wouldn’t have given them enough time to plot. Do they just have a standing plan; you grab the arms, you grab the bag, you be the lookout?

Thankfully neither she nor any of us were hurt. Although I’m not typically a believer in witchcraft, desperate times call for desperate measures; we need to find someone who can reverse this spell and cast some good luck on the Philips household! If you know of a good witchdoctor, send him/her our way.

Ps. Mom-do not freak out.
Pps. Other moms, do not freak out.