Thursday, August 02, 2007
Why we don’t stay in local Guesthouses
So we came to Arusha yesterday with B&B and our friends George and Adam. George and Adam were staying in a local guesthouse, while the rest of us were at the Outpost, a mid-level hotel in a nice neighbourhood. This is, by local standards, quite expensive, but at the low end of the spectrum of acceptable accommodations by western standards. It has TV, a pool, a decent restaurant and clean, good-sized rooms. Also, I guess I should mention that there is a hot water in the rooms and a good shower, oh and mosquito nets. The guesthouse has a bed in the room and I suppose a light. No mosquito net and no bathroom.
So anyway on to the real reason we stay in a hotel. George and Adam came by today to say goodbye to B&B, who flew out today. They had a great story of their night at the guesty. At 5 AM Adam awoke to loud noises outside the room. He woke George, “Georgey, Georgey wake up!” he cried. “What do you think all that noise is?” It turned out that two men had been robbed in the guesthouse. Their cell phone and 520,000 shillings in Zambian funds were no longer in their possession. So, what would you think would happen in such a situation? Think for a moment how you would react in a small Super 8 Motel if you heard that someone had been robbed. HMMM.
I suspect whatever you are thinking is not what happened in this situation. The guests of the guesty formed a little gang and searched all of the rooms. When nothing was found they searched outside, thinking that the culprit would now he was caught and maybe throw the items out the window. After finding the phone, without the SIM card (the chip from a cell phone) they went to the room above the window. In this room, the occupant of which drive a new car had a good job and had in his possession the large sum of over 800,000 Tz Shillings, the mob found a SIM under the bed and upon further searching by the 20 or more people, the missing money. The mob confirmed that the SIM card was from the missing phone decided that the man in the room was the thief. Two of the men in the gang (who stayed in different rooms) roughed the guy up a fair bit. After the beating they took the stolen money, the cell phone and all of the guy’s money and walked out of the room. The crowd figured they were off to call the police. However when the two guys did not return and the police did not come it became clear that it was a scam.
The two guys picked someone who appeared rich, devised a plan to set him up with a weary mob, and pounced quickly and left even quicker. A sad story but it is reality. You won’t see that on Survivor.
So anyway on to the real reason we stay in a hotel. George and Adam came by today to say goodbye to B&B, who flew out today. They had a great story of their night at the guesty. At 5 AM Adam awoke to loud noises outside the room. He woke George, “Georgey, Georgey wake up!” he cried. “What do you think all that noise is?” It turned out that two men had been robbed in the guesthouse. Their cell phone and 520,000 shillings in Zambian funds were no longer in their possession. So, what would you think would happen in such a situation? Think for a moment how you would react in a small Super 8 Motel if you heard that someone had been robbed. HMMM.
I suspect whatever you are thinking is not what happened in this situation. The guests of the guesty formed a little gang and searched all of the rooms. When nothing was found they searched outside, thinking that the culprit would now he was caught and maybe throw the items out the window. After finding the phone, without the SIM card (the chip from a cell phone) they went to the room above the window. In this room, the occupant of which drive a new car had a good job and had in his possession the large sum of over 800,000 Tz Shillings, the mob found a SIM under the bed and upon further searching by the 20 or more people, the missing money. The mob confirmed that the SIM card was from the missing phone decided that the man in the room was the thief. Two of the men in the gang (who stayed in different rooms) roughed the guy up a fair bit. After the beating they took the stolen money, the cell phone and all of the guy’s money and walked out of the room. The crowd figured they were off to call the police. However when the two guys did not return and the police did not come it became clear that it was a scam.
The two guys picked someone who appeared rich, devised a plan to set him up with a weary mob, and pounced quickly and left even quicker. A sad story but it is reality. You won’t see that on Survivor.
