Safety

Last week, my sister asked me in an e-mail if we felt totally safe here. Here’s my reply, slightly edited:

Well, being here just a few days, I think we're still ignorant, but we're learning what we need to do.

In our house, there are locks on everything from the fridge to drawers in the built-in closets, from the gate on the front door to an iron gate at the top of the stairway from the first to the second floor (fills the whole doorway). They bought huge, strong padlocks for us to use on the two main gates to the house - front and back. These are iron gates outside the regular doors. They say to lock them up at night. There are iron bars on every single exterior window - to prevent theft, they say.

We also have that panic button to call the security company.

Yes, in some ways it feels like a prison, but I'm not surprised in a way (I knew it was a dangerous city and expected things like this).

We would like to get the real scoop from our neighbor at the end of the compound - she's an expatriate too (a Brit) and lives in the neighborhood, so she should be the best to tell us how to behave. We want to ask her if the locks on the fridge and other places inside are because you can't trust the house help.

But every day I've walked to the grocery store 10 minutes away. One man told me not to wear my watch when I do this (shows that I have money or it’s something tempting to steal off me) and to drive this short stretch at night (it's open 24 hours). He also said to pay attention to your rear-view mirror and if you feel someone is following you in your car (as if it's common), not to go home but to change your route and go to a gas station or somewhere else.

Another telling example: A driver from Sarah's office took me out furniture shopping last week. We were in the city center, a place they say is more dangerous than other residential neighborhoods. We were on a busy street with slow-moving traffic. I opened the car window because it was warm and rested my elbow on the door. He asked if I had a watch on, which I did. He said someone could come buy and snatch it off my arm. This made me nervous to get out at the furniture shop he dropped me off at with my backpack or that someone would pickpocket my wallet.

So that's the story now - the partial picture. I was told I should read the newspaper and that would tell me what type of crimes are being committed and then I'd know what type of things happen so I can protect myself better.