Over the next week, Manu taught me a lot of things, like how to distract a mark on the metro and how to dumpster dive outside of the Carrefour. He showed me where to exchange foreign money from the wallets we stole, and introduced me to Yaya, one of the illegal purse sellers who’d buy foreign coins from us that the exchange kiosks wouldn’t take.
Manu was giving me a portion of the money from each of the wallets, and I kept these funds in an empty bread bag, stashed in the bottom of our knapsack. Someday I would have enough money to start a new life here – to rent a small apartment, then buy some new clothes and a cell phone so I could find a job. In the meantime, it just made me feel better knowing the money was there, watching it accumulate day by day. I allowed myself to spend a small
