Polizi! Polizi!

Carol shouted "Polizi, Polizi!" hoping she was getting the language right as I chased after a man that had just managed to sneak up on me and rip my over the neck wallet off of my neck. It happened very fast. He obviously had done this before.
Carol and I were searching for the bus terminal in Dar Es Salaam to purchase our bus tickets to Arusha. Having been unsuccessful in our search we were on our way back to the hotel to get some help with directions.
I barely saw the guy it happened so fast. He used both hands- one to grab the wallet, the other to rip it off of me. I shouted "Hey" and ran after him as soon as I felt it break off of my neck. I am not so sure that was a smart move. After all in the States, a thief might be carrying a gun or a knife! But testosterone must have kicked in because I didn't think twice about chasing after him to hopefully reclaim my wallet. I chased him down an alley about 200 yards and then he made a right down an alley behind a building. It was a this point that I began to wonder what I was going to do if I caught him. Grab my wallet hopefully..but what if he got other valuable on me? So as he scaled a wall and leapt over it I decided my effort was futile. I ran back to the street where I came from where Carol had about10-15 locals trying to help us. A nice man- Abuu Moshi- guided us to the Dar Es Salaam police station so that I could file a report. He sat with Carol as I was interviewed by a couple different police officers. The police officers used blank trace paper, drew lines with a ruler, to take my name and declaration of what happened. He used carbon copy paper to make copies. After a couple different versions of taking down my information on similar paper, and after waiting a couple hours I was led back to an office where I was given an official police report. This "official" report had real letterhead but was still written by hand. All the officers were very supportive and had lots of questions about my profession and by the end were encouraging me to do some social work in Tanzania.
So this was a different kind of cultural immersion experience than we had hoped for but interesting nonetheless.
The good news is that I had separated out my passport and credit cards and placed them in a waistbelt which he did not get. The one credit card he did get we were able to cancel with a $30 phone call from our hotel. We tried to call collect but there was a misunderstanding. Ahh well..not too much for security sake.
Aside from the one credit card, he got my WA state drivers license and my health insurance card. We don't expect this to cause any problems here but some inconvenience when I return.
Since this event two days ago, we have taken a 10 hour bus ride to Arusha and got to see many wonderful sights such as stopping for a baboon crossing, passing through many villages with interesting range of housing ...many thatched roofs..lush palm trees, children playing, people cooking over open fires, people hanging out of minibuses called dalla dallas here...and much more. We arrived safely and are staying in a wonderful lodge called Outpost Lodge- www.outposttanzania.com...try that link to see more. We still haven't figured out the whole uploading photo thing..stay tuned for that!
While a bit shaken by the wallet theft, we are grateful that we are both safe and sound and have experienced many generous friendly locals.
Hope you are all well!