Monday, May 05, 2008

i got mugged... i forgot

i celebrated my 5 year reunion this weekend at the world's finest learning institution... washington and lee university. you can say your school was better, and for you it probably was, but for me wlu was the best. is the best. in any case, i was catching up with friends, discussing world travels, when suddenly i remembered i was mugged last week! here's the story...

saturday a week ago i celebrated my students' graduation and then went to a dinner party for rhett, an american friend of mine who is returning to the US after 9 years of working in africa. i was sporting an african outfit (as pictured 2 blogs previous) and wanted to run home to change before late night activities ensued. so i jumped on the back of a zemi (moped taxi) and at the last minute asked my friend romeo to jump on behind me. this means there were three people on one moto-bike. this may or may not be illegal... technically, no more than two are supposed to be on a bike at once, but i'm convinced no one in cotonou is aware of this detail. so off we go, the three of us on a moto, at maybe 10pm... not even late.

the zemi driver stopped at a light... because it was red... this is normal. out of nowhere, like a flash of lightening, a man runs up to the moto, grabs my bag and runs off. only... he loses his grip. my bag was wedged so tightly between me and the moto driver--mugging man didn't have a chance. plus, romeo grabbed me and my bag from behind for protection. it's a darn good thing i opted to travel with the illegal third person!

so i'm okay. no harm done. maybe that's why i forgot to write about it.

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