Advances from the O'bay Po Po

This is possibly one of the funnier stories I have to tell. I finally decided I should make the police report on my stolen wallet so that I could cancel my TZ bank card. Dennis was kind enough to make the time to take me to the Oysterbay Police Station. In Tanzania you generally avoid the police at all costs, the mantra “to serve and protect” isn’t executed quite the same here. Anyway, I went in with that somewhat sickening nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach. Not wanting them to smell my fear I tried to be as casual and jovial as can be appropriate in a police station. Things went quite smoothly, in fact I was in and out in half an hour with the report in hand. It is possible the Oyster Bay Police are just that efficient but it is likely another case of Mzungu fever. Let me explain…
So first I had to sit down with an officer (I now know him as David) and describe what happened. Dennis explained the basics but then the officer looked at him and said, “You go wait over there.” Now I was left to answer technical questions including “what’s your tribe?”… Canadian?
Then the officer sent me upstairs to room 5 where I was to pay a 500Tsh fee – that’s about 45 cents. I walked out of that room and found the officer waiting for me outside the door, “Okay, are you done?” Yes. “Now you go to room 1 and they will write a report.” It was back downstairs and on the way, the officer turns, suddenly having lost his demure stance, and says, “So can I have your number?” What?! He repeated this request and I burst out laughing! Perhaps that was an inappropriate response toward a police officer but I experience advances from people in the street and people in government offices and people in hotels but somehow I thought the police station would be different. Maybe because I’m afraid of them. Haha.
I gave him the number and we proceeded to chat like buddies about the fact that I was heading back to Arusha but would be in Dar for Christmas. Then he says, “So don’t be afraid to answer when I call you." I laughed and said Of course I’ll be afraid, it’s the police calling! We reached the bottom of the stairs and he turned to walk down another corridor and I had the nerve to say, Hey! Aren’t you going to direct me to room 1? He pointed the way and we parted…and Ihave been getting friendly text messages ever since…including a transfer of 1000Tsh mobile credit. Apparentely he misses me and life is bad ever since that day as he awaits my return to Dar for Christmas…let’s take a poll…can an officer detain me for refusing him? I think I better tread lightly. haha