I got jacked

October 21st 2006 Chulucanas, Peru

It’s about time I got pick pocketed

I knew it would happen sooner or later. My USB got jacked this week. After dropping off something at the post office I remember putting the receipt in the pocket of my backpack and then heading to the little store where I buy water. As I enter the owner’s kids were playing. I waited at the counter and felt a shove in my pack. I thought it was just the kids playing. Later, I would realize it might have been the kids, but they weren’t just playing.

After paying, I left to retrieve a mototaxi. As I swung my backpack around I noticed the little pocket was open. “That’s strange,” I thought. I started rummaging through the pocket and noticed my USB flash memory disk was missing. I returned to the vendor and confronted the owner, but to no avail. The least she could have done was at least question the kids. The part that sucks the most is that there a high tax on electronics here, so buying one will prove costly.

A more serious holdup

The following entry is rated R. It is only for restricted audiences. That implies that if you tend to worry yourself over the safety of others although you have no means of controlling the situation, you should probably not read this entry. Mom, Grandma….that means you guys.

The passage between Chulucanas and La Encantada is somewhat dangerous. Every few months or so people are held up at gunpoint and forced to handover their belongings. On Saturday, a car of Peruvian tourists were stopped by a gang of masked men and forced to handover wallets and bags with pistols pointed in their direction. That same morning one of the designers who comes to La Encantada, was held up in his mototaxi.

I try to not let the possibility of theft worry me. They can take my things. They are only materials, easily replaceable. Yet I am still paranoid. It still irks me when I am pick pocketed. Hopefully, I will reach a point when I truly believe the third sentence of this paragraph. I wonder if I will have to be conditioned by being jacked enough times to reach this point or if preferably, I can just learn not to place such a high value on that which is tangible, rather concentrating energy on that which is truly irreplaceable.