I just received my camera battery and charger from my neighbor, the Chief of the Brigade! I realized that I didn’t update regarding who stole my stuff and how my neighbor found the stuff, so I’ll do that in this post.
The day after I got my camera back one of my friends in country came to visit me (Andrew). He arrived a little after lunch so we went to my favorite bean lady (the one in the video) to grab 100 francs worth of beans. As we sat there, another younger guy came into the hut, excitedly speaking in Adjah. It was something like this.
Adjah adjah ajdah adjah! Adjah, appareil de photo, adjah adjah, yovo!
As you can see, I understood two parts of this conversation. “Appareil de photo” is French for camera and “yovo’ is obviously me. Intrigued that this random guy was probably talking about my camera, I turned to him.
“What do you know about my camera?”
“HAHAHA! I helped get your camera back!”
“How? I want to hear this.”
“Well, you know that it was the son of the Chief of the Brigade, right?” (At this point in time my other neighbor, the proprietor, had revealed this to me)
“Yeah.”
“Well, the other day we had a soccer match at the school. It was a big event. This little guy comes onto the field with this new camera!”
“WAIT WAIT WAIT! HE ACTUALLY TOOK MY CAMERA OUT INTO PUBLIC?!?” (Looking at Andrew in amazement)
“Yeah! He was taking all these photos and having a grand time. We all knew it couldn’t be his so I went over to your proprietor and told him about it.”
“Okay… why didn’t this kid just go sell it somewhere? He could have made a lot of money.”
“What?”
“Why didn’t he resell my camera, it is worth a lot.”
*Totally confused look* “No, he took pictures with it.”
“It is okay, thanks for your help!”
“Oh yeah, so we went to your proprietor and then we had to work on a plan to tell the Chief without actually telling him it was his son. That took awhile.”
“That’s great. Thanks again!”
So yeah, it was the Chief’s son that came into my house, just like my mama thought. Kind of sad that that’s the case, but then again, he does go into my neighbor’s house (the Chief’s) every once in awhile to blast Celine Dion and such. I was looking forward to getting my battery back so I could see some of the pictures this kid took (I actually know his name cause I’ve talked with him before, Bryce) and I wasn’t disappointed. He starts with two self-portraits, moves onto his dog (Tupee), then there is a series of pictures of his classmates (I assume) who are mainly girls, finished off with pictures from the soccer match.
I’m genuinely glad I got my camera, battery, and charger back, but I’m still a little disheartened that this happened. Especially from my neighbor’s son, who just happens to be the head honcho of the law in Djakotomey. What can you do though…
Lock your back door, that’s what.
The day after I got my camera back one of my friends in country came to visit me (Andrew). He arrived a little after lunch so we went to my favorite bean lady (the one in the video) to grab 100 francs worth of beans. As we sat there, another younger guy came into the hut, excitedly speaking in Adjah. It was something like this.
Adjah adjah ajdah adjah! Adjah, appareil de photo, adjah adjah, yovo!
As you can see, I understood two parts of this conversation. “Appareil de photo” is French for camera and “yovo’ is obviously me. Intrigued that this random guy was probably talking about my camera, I turned to him.
“What do you know about my camera?”
“HAHAHA! I helped get your camera back!”
“How? I want to hear this.”
“Well, you know that it was the son of the Chief of the Brigade, right?” (At this point in time my other neighbor, the proprietor, had revealed this to me)
“Yeah.”
“Well, the other day we had a soccer match at the school. It was a big event. This little guy comes onto the field with this new camera!”
“WAIT WAIT WAIT! HE ACTUALLY TOOK MY CAMERA OUT INTO PUBLIC?!?” (Looking at Andrew in amazement)
“Yeah! He was taking all these photos and having a grand time. We all knew it couldn’t be his so I went over to your proprietor and told him about it.”
“Okay… why didn’t this kid just go sell it somewhere? He could have made a lot of money.”
“What?”
“Why didn’t he resell my camera, it is worth a lot.”
*Totally confused look* “No, he took pictures with it.”
“It is okay, thanks for your help!”
“Oh yeah, so we went to your proprietor and then we had to work on a plan to tell the Chief without actually telling him it was his son. That took awhile.”
“That’s great. Thanks again!”
So yeah, it was the Chief’s son that came into my house, just like my mama thought. Kind of sad that that’s the case, but then again, he does go into my neighbor’s house (the Chief’s) every once in awhile to blast Celine Dion and such. I was looking forward to getting my battery back so I could see some of the pictures this kid took (I actually know his name cause I’ve talked with him before, Bryce) and I wasn’t disappointed. He starts with two self-portraits, moves onto his dog (Tupee), then there is a series of pictures of his classmates (I assume) who are mainly girls, finished off with pictures from the soccer match.
I’m genuinely glad I got my camera, battery, and charger back, but I’m still a little disheartened that this happened. Especially from my neighbor’s son, who just happens to be the head honcho of the law in Djakotomey. What can you do though…
Lock your back door, that’s what.
1 comments:
I'd advise this young guy that he better not become a criminal. This was NOT exactly the perfect crime!!!
Glad your camera and battery and charger are all back.
Best, Mark Loehrke (Carly's dad)
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