Novel Times, Novel Measures

Well, I was planning to post an entry or two about the past week and a half in Oaxaca and my intial foray into Spanish classes. That was yesterday. Today, in the second-class bus station, waiting for a bus to Puerto Escondido and the fabled beaches there, I was the victim of the old “bait and snatch”. Yep. My backpack, and everything in it, was stolen. You betcha. Passport, money cards, traveller’s checks, and photocopies of all that stuff, not to mention all of my clothes, personal affects, camping gear, etc. Everything. Well, I did have 13 pesos and my Mexico guidebook. That was fortunate, at least. Most important of all, though, I was not stolen. I am safe and unscathed.

What a morning. The progression of emotions has been quick and distinct – thankfully at this point I am feeling somewhat in control and relatively aloof. Being stripped of everything but my clothes and a book was both frightfully exhilirating and surprisingly liberating. I’ve run the gamut from anger to shame, from bias to compassion. And while I can say that this experience has born much fruit in the form of emotional work, it still has not been as challenging as a few of the days last week grappling with spanish. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to post an entry about that soon. Right now, on to the story of the stolen gear.

When I first discovered my backpack was gone I was scared out of my wits and running frantic. After being distracted by a boy asking me how to use a calling card, I turned around to find that the backpack previously leaning against my leg was gone. A surge of adreneline raced up my arms causing the hair to nearly jump off my arms. Frantically, in my broken spanish, I questioned all those around if they had seen a man run off with a large green bag. The ridiculous part was that I knew exactly who stole it and had been watching him – an hombre standing suspiciously a few seats away from me. It only took the momentary distaction of the boy and another potential culprit – a woman selling candies and whatnot – to break my concentration and open the window of opportunity.

After pounding up and down the semi-circular station questioning people, I reported the incident to terminal security. They offered little help and left me with little hope. I continued to question people as I left the station and it turned out that two fellas sitting at one of the gates had seen a man leave with my bag. I followed his trail to the left but it quickly became obvious that the sheer number of stalls, buses, streets and people in the nearby market could offer no hope at all for finding my bag. Right then the emotional cascade began its turn towards acceptance.

Now, 14 hours later, I’ve jumped through all the necessary hoops. Form after form, call after call, walking from store to store to obtain the bare essentials – my shins hurt and my body is sticky from sweat. Somewhere during all that activity, though, as anger simmered down into dismay, and acceptance settled over me, I began to experience a curious lightness. For perhaps the first time in my life I was free of a lot of baggage, literally and figuratively, and hence that much closer to freedom from ambition and ego. It sounds strange, I know, but it was exhilirating to witness firsthand the existence of an ascetic, if only for a moment. The few hours I spent wandering the streets, without money, without material possessions, without community, were truly unique for me. After a time of this awareness, I gained full acceptance of the fact that I had lost everything and began to smile at my situation.

Around 3:30 or so I was finally able to retrieve some money that my wonderful parents had wired to me via Western Union. Since I had no ID the security guard from the US Consulate had to sign for the cash. Talk about helpless. A fat wad of pesos, though, helped to dispell my burgeoning thoughts of embracing the ascetic life and wandering the world clad in only my boots, pants and Tenacious D t-shirt. Of course, after such a boundary-dissolving experience, what did I do? Go out and buy more stuff! I’ve purchased a knapsack and some personal items such as soap, toothpaste and a toothbrush, as well as a poncho and another shirt. I’ve had a meal and some comfort food – delicious Oaxacan hot chocolate and a frozen fruit pop – and have started to consider my options:

1. return to the states as soon as possible
2. shorten my trip, try to see a few places and study spanish a bit more
3. stick it out and return at the end of August as planned

Thankfully American Airlines will allow me to change my flight schedule without any additional fees if I don’t change the routing. As long as I give enough notice I have a lot of flexibility as to where to go from here. Right now I am thinking about the logisitics of #2 as I would hate to cut my trip off at a few short weeks. At the same time I don’t know if I am quite prepared for the full 3 months anymore, both materially or emotionally. I really would like to make it to Guatemala and study more Spanish. I need to get some more information from both my bank and the U.S. Consulate tomorrow and do a lot of thinking. Somehow I am excited about the prospects of travelling light and on the cusp of nothingness – a lighter, leaner, meaner LSG! I’ll post more when it becomes clear. Hasta lo.

NOTE: I do have traveller’s insurance so I expect to be reimbursed in part or all for my possessions. There are one or two items which I will sorely miss, including my favorite basketball jersey and my Spanish notebook. The latter upsets me the most. So much hard work had already went into that little spiral bound pad. The upside is that starting over will only serve to reinforce all of that information. I don’t know if there is always an upside to every bad situation but I am trying hard to cultivate such thoughts!

Filed under: Mexico