Lost and Robbed in Dubai (II) The Witch and Me ..

………….Continued.  Once upon a time, it was our last official day in Dubai. We had done a lot of shopping and had a great time and so decided to go relax on a beach for the rest of out trip we were to leave the next morning and so we simply needed to cool off.  This particular beach was a private beach and so we didn’t expect to have any issues. there were quite a few people on the beach but not a crown and all was well. we found a lounge chair and a nice spot under some trees and put our stuff down and took off for the wonderful water (that heat wasn’t playing games).

Now there are a lot of Filipino ladies working in Dubai I do not know why, but there’s loads and loads of ’em working and just doing life and so when I saw a group of 3 of ’em at the beach it didn’t look out of place. I simply went about my business but I noticed that a particular one kept staring at us and this made me very curious. I couldn’t say why but I had a funny feeling about her and I mentioned it to my sister but she didn’t think it was anything, didn’t care and was just generally having a good time. I on the other hand saw a red flag and so kept looking back at her even when we were in the water, I made sure I kept an eye on her.

About an hour into our stay we were both splashing around in the water when I noticed this woman near our bags. Just sitting there acting like she was being a tourist but something in me was uncomfortable. Now, I was quite far offshore but my sister was just on the waters edge playing with her son and so I kept trying to get her to go look at our bags and check what this woman was doing around there but her one year old was keeping her quite busy. I decided to swim back ashore and check up on our bags. The moment this woman noticed I was coming back ashore she took off as in literally ran away and headed for the parking lot where a car was waiting to pick her up.

At this point I am now fully alarmed I swam out of the water and ran towards our bags to check. I noticed my sisters wallet was missing, I also noticed an empty pack of my nephews Ribena drink. My heart was palpitating at this point but I am not sure so I called out to my sister; still playing and taking pictures with her son at the water edge asking “where is all our money?” and she (completely oblivious to what was happening)  shouted back “check my wallet”.

Lord Jesus!! Now I knew there was a crisis I took off running in my swimwear in the direction of the parking lot. Fortunately it seemed the car was waiting for her friends who had gone to the changing rooms to wear their clothes …apparently this witch (as she is now fondly called by me) who I might add was stark naked wearing a completely transparent flimsy shirt had been smoking and walking around basically nude in front of kids looking like a junkie (Yes I judged her Nigerian-auntie style)  …. didn’t even bother to change her clothes. She simply ran for the car. Sigh, the guilty witch.

So I run to the car and knock on the window of the back door  where she is sited yelling “give me my money” she starts to mumble and act confused like I am some strange angry black woman trying to destroy her car. By this time I am so angry in my mind I am like “this woman doesn’t know me oh”, ”give me my money” I repeat much louder but calmer still getting much more upset. She still ignored me so I match to the drivers side and bang on the window and order him to “open the door” and then I run back to her window. The driver opens his door and comes out looking confused and trying to ask whats going on she opens her own door as well to feigning ignorance. Now these people all do not speak English and ther we all are just looking confused and talking in whatever Goddamn language it was they were speaking… my temper shoots through the roof and I loose my cool.

So you see what had happened was (in Tamars’ voice), in my haste to leave the water I had left my slippers by the sea shore and because of how hot it was I was burned under my foot however the adrenaline in my body didn’t let me feel the heat initially. But at the point where I attempted calming down I had begun to feel the pain underfoot and had to start hoping from foot to foot infuriating me further and these fool had the guts to act like she didn’t know what I was saying. I was seconds away from slapping her and jacking her dress Yoruba woman style… but I decided I needed my money first before I do drama. I guess that came from being a customer service person you know that drama doesn’t always do it you first start by trying to reason with people.

You see all our remaining money was in that wallet including all my sisters personal paraphernalia ID cards, ATM Cards etc. I had lost my own wallet in the mall three days before and so loosing this wallet as well was a No.. No…In that wallet was the money to complete payment for our hotel accommodation, payment for excess luggage (which we were sure we had), food for the next 24 hours and all. In there were also the only cards we had seeing that I had lost all of mine so that even if we were stranded and could have gotten money from home the loss of my sisters cards created a major dilemma.  Basically this meant that my sisters wallet was the only way out or we would be stuck in Dubai. And Dubai is nice and all but after 10 days you are sick of the food and just want to go home.

When I realized this lady was playing games with me I switched mode, (every Nigerian has their market persona) so I put on my market/area mama persona. Put my hands on my waist, looked her in the eyes and said “Madam I am Nigerian Oh! If you try me in this place, you will see pepper. For the last time “give me my money” (sometimes Nigeria having a bad rep has its uses). Now I don’t know which one worked whether the switch or the threat but next thing I saw dollar bills flying out of this woman’s boob area and from under her laps and then she sat back in the car.

I picked the money up looked at the bundle and the Nigerian/banker in me knew the money was incomplete. I faced her again stepping closer “give me the remaining now!!!”. This time she just flung the rest of the money on the floor and scooted all the way to the other side of the car and started crying.

The drivers eyes grew like saucers he was just staring completely in shock. In all this confusion and with the noise and arguing I noticed her friends saw a bit of the commotion and came running towards the car to see what it was about. But by now my feet were already blistered and I was in quite a significant amount of pain plus I had gotten burned by the sun and I couldn’t stand it much longer.  I quickly tell them their friend is a thief and start walking back to the beach. They all start discussing whatever it is I don’t care I left them there, then her two friends ran to and catch up with me and started apologizing … I just hissed loudly and walked away I was drained at this point I just wanted to go home.

What I got to find out later was that if had as much as reported the case to the security guards at the beach that day, that witch could’ve gotten a jail sentence. Her luck I guess……….

All this while my sister is oblivious to whats going on. I got back to where our bags were to see my sister still frolicking in the water smh! What can I say? I eventually found her wallet on the floor not to far from where our bags were and that stupid witch or winch as Najia peeps say was the one who even drank my nephews Ribena..

Anyways lets just say by the time the gist reached home I was the heroin of the day ….. yasss and the next day we came back home to Nigeria. 

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