petty theft

I've become increasingly challenged recently by how I should be handling
theft from my home. The week I left Denver to start to come out here I
had a garage sale where people came by at 6am to steal my stuff before I
could get up; maybe that was preparation for what I've seen out here.
There's a fair amount of it; I've had 4 pairs of shoes, socks, a cell
phone, a water purifier, bungee cords, cement, wire, sprinklers,
shovels, hoes, candles, knives, sunglasses, books, DVDs, and bananas
stolen from my place over the past few months. Most of the stuff was
gifts, or extra things, and I have tried to maintain an attitude of
'enforced generosity -- I probably should have given that stuff away
anyway' to those donations to someone's pocketbook or feet. As Gwen,
who's lived here all her life, points out, people here are very poor.
And she's right, they are. I have an abundance of things, especially in
comparison to the villagers, and most of the things that have been
stolen have not been essentials. But it can be difficult when you're
expecting a phone call to find that your cell phone has been stolen
(especially now that there is no other way of communicating here at
Mukinge with the internet and landline phone systems not working), or to
go play basketball to find your shoes have been stolen so you have to
play barefoot, or to strap something on your bike to find your bungee
cords have been stolen so you have to make 2 trips to carry the things
you needed, or to water the garden to find your sprinkler missing so you
have to water by hand. And it's frustrating when you know they won't
have the batteries to run the purifier, or the charger to recharge the
cell phone, so those things will become useless to them in about a week
as well, doing no one any profit at all. At least I can be comforted
that my shoes, or knives, or candles are probably going to good use
somewhere. So I range between annoyance to acceptance and back again,
and try to hold possessions a little bit more loosely, and try to
remember in between thefts to continue to be generous to people who come
asking for help or money.