the first theft i was present for

I mentioned that they always tell us how unsafe Arusha is. I have yet to have a problem, although I have friends who have lost phones, money, and UN ids. On Thursday, on a very crowded dalla-dalla with IE, we were barely balanced on the step in the doorway of the dalla, the door of which wouldn't close because there was an additional row of men hanging out the door. IE had her backpack in her hand in front of her, near the floor. At the end of a very miserable one stop long ride, involving severe cramping in my one foot that had a tenuous position on the step into the dalla and in my one hand that was clinging to the back of a seat while my body tilted awkwardly sideways against that of the man next to me because I had no control over it given the precarious hand and foot positioning, we sort of tumbled backwards out of the dalla to let someone climb out from the back seat and IE discovered that her backpack was open and her wallet gone. I was first reluctant to make any assumptions and asked all the usual questions, "Where did you last have it? Are you sure you had it when we left Mr. Price? Could it have fallen out?" But it became clear that the backpack had been opened and the wallet - and nothing else - removed.

I expected the dalla people to shrug. Happens all the time, right?

Instead, the bus pimp made everyone climb out of the dalla. There were about forty people in a bus built for 17. Every person, before they got back in, got patted down by the bus pimp. I looked under the seats with a flashlight. Little kids had their school backpacks opened. Women showed us the contents of their purses and pulled their own wallets out of their bras to show us that they were not Ildi's. One woman sympathetically looked through IE's backpack herself and nodded in commiseration. Nope, no wallet.

We didn't find the wallet. There were just too many people and too much potential for someone to move to the edge of the crowd, toss it in the bushes, and put the money in their pocket. We suspect this one guy who was hanging out the door right behind IE. But it was a great moment, all of us outside the dalla getting searched (they insisted that I check my bag, too, although no one patted me down since we were obviously riding together - why would I steal my friend's wallet?)

After we all got back in the dalla and started going again and the people started getting off and I finally got a seat, one of the guys who had been helping us search (keep in mind that he is a Tanzanian, looks like a Tanzanian, talks like a Tanzanian, is a Tanzanian) squeezed in next to me on the flip-down seat in the last row and looked at me sorrowfully and said, "You cannot trust black people."

Erm...