I Got My Shoes Back!

When I was staying on the north of Zanzibar, in Nungwi, I went to a full moon party on the beach where a bunch of resorts are. Curiously, it was three nights after the actual full moon but the idea was mainly for a bunch of tourists and beach boys (locals who work the snorkeling tours, sell silly paintings of Massai, etc.) to get drunk together and party all night long under reassuring light of the full moon. At one point in the evening I took of my nice new soccer shoes to dance in the soft sand with others to the dj's hip tunes. An hour or so later I returned to find my shoes and socks missing along with the key to my hotel room I was hiding inside. "Crap!" I thought. I had bought those shoes, new shoes are a big investment for me, specifically for this trip so I would have something comfortable and nice to wear other than sandals that I could also play soccer in. I resigned to my fate that they were gone forever and I would have to buy another pair somewhere. In the back of my head I secretly hoped to find them being sold on the streets of Zanzibar and reclaim them triumphantly. But that was just an absurd fantasy.

One and a half weeks later, in Stone Town, I saw the Massai in the photo above walking down the street past me and wearing my shoes! Isnt he cute. Look closely and you will see his shirt buttons misaligned. It was totally unreal. I stopped him and attempted to explain the situation, half expecting to not get my shoes back but happy at the irony of actually having found them again. He didn't speak any English or didn't care to but was entertaining my conversation, maybe it was the powers of my Massai bracelet, so we got the help of a passerby to translate. I managed to convince all that these were indeed my shoes and was able to buy them back for 10,000 shillings. What a triumph. I was surprised at the young man's willingness to cooperate but I suspect that he felt a certain powerful guilt that overcame his greed and he feared the consequences of bad karma if he didn't return the shoes to its rightful owner for a fair price. I am feeling very lucky indeed.

Ramadan has ended and with it four days of festivities have begun. Tonight is my last night in Zanzibar. It has been a fabulous stay. Tomorrow I will set off to cross Tanzania by train and by boat to the southwestern border of Uganda where I will continue to relax for a few more days on the high altitude Lake Bunyoni. Coincidentally, I met the managers of the backpacker resort there on the night my shoes walked away from me. After Lake Bunyoni I will be back to Nkokonjero to follow up on my previous work and then Kampala to see about the future car work being done at Makerere University before leaving for Europe on November 4th.