Robbers without the Cops

Well the string of bad luck continued today, as we suffered a huge break in last night. It's frightening to think that there was someone rummaging though our house as we slept - they even took my cell phone which was on my bedside to wake me up in the morning. I might have even been looking directly at them, but due to my blindess without my glasses there is no way I could have seen them. With 12 people living in this house, we all thought that the scuffling noise was another volunteer getting up to use the washroom in the middle of the night. In all I lost my iPod, Macbook, wallet with 25,000CFA (about $50), my bank card, my credit card, my drivers license, my cell phone, and 2 pairs of headphones. I still feel sick to my stomach about the whole thing - I have no idea how I'm going to go about replacing them, though I'm really glad I'll be seeing my parents at Christmas. It's frustrating as we were all just starting to feel productive and at home here, and now we're drifting without purpose again. We also feel violated, and it's hard to get that sense of security back once something like that happens.

After discovering the break-in this morning at 7:00am, we spent the rest of the day down at the central police station. I was elected to go down with the volunteer coordinator first thing in the morning, and it was quite the experience. It felt like something out of the Wild West, with chickens running around in the dusty courtyard and giant cells lining the inside of the building. After an hour wait we got an inspector to come to the house, where he started his report and viewed the mangle remains of our living room window. All of us then had to go back down to the station, where I got to have my very own Senegalese Law and Order experience as I had to give the testimony for all of the volunteers en francais. There's not much of a chance that I will ever see my things again, but part of me is still hoping. I went to the market today to get a new cell phone, and continuing with my bad luck it isn't working, so I will have to get it fixed demain. We're all having beer and a big feast ce soir to try to reclaim our house, though I have a feeling that not too many of us will be sleeping tonight. We'll muddle on through though.

Rattled but not broken,

Jess