Last week my housemate got into a little spot of bother at the money market. How it works is you stop your car at the side of the road and a bunch of guys come to your window to exchange your dollars for their Sudanese pounds. The guys counted out the 780 pounds for $300. But one of them must have been a budding Derren Brown, because after the dollars were handed over, one of the $100 bills turned into a $1, which he started waving at my housemate and demanding his 260 pounds back. An argument and a bit of fisticuffs ensued. One of them knocks off my housemate's specs at which point he speedily (and blindly) accelerates away.
So fast-forward to this morning and I'm driving the same car that my housemate was that day, and stop near the money-changers to buy a banana for breakfast. One the money-changers must have recognised the car because he and a policeman appear and drag me over the road to the police station. After a while of sitting and protesting my innocence, the senior officer sends us off to the court. Of course there is no police car so I end up driving an officer and my accuser to the courthouse. En route the officer is telling me how stupid this all is, British people don't steal, its Kenyans and Ugandans that steal. If I was Ugandan then he could easily prove I was guilty. We arrive at the court and the police there agree that this is stupid and I am free to go. I drive the officer (but not my accuser) back to the station on my way in to work, only 2 hours late.
I think we'll be changing our money at the bank from now on.
So fast-forward to this morning and I'm driving the same car that my housemate was that day, and stop near the money-changers to buy a banana for breakfast. One the money-changers must have recognised the car because he and a policeman appear and drag me over the road to the police station. After a while of sitting and protesting my innocence, the senior officer sends us off to the court. Of course there is no police car so I end up driving an officer and my accuser to the courthouse. En route the officer is telling me how stupid this all is, British people don't steal, its Kenyans and Ugandans that steal. If I was Ugandan then he could easily prove I was guilty. We arrive at the court and the police there agree that this is stupid and I am free to go. I drive the officer (but not my accuser) back to the station on my way in to work, only 2 hours late.
I think we'll be changing our money at the bank from now on.
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