June 6th, 2006. The Tale of the Broken Front Door
After watching a movie until 2 am, I awoken by my colleague Sophie early this morning, with the news that we had been robbed. Before anyone freaks out, no one was hurt at all in any way, they didn't go past the living room into the area where our bedrooms are.
Yesterday I noticed that the front door that goes from our courtyard (the house is walled... typical expat haven) to the dirt-road/plaza was broken, and couldn't be closed. Something inside me said "something bad is going to happen tonight..." but alas, I didn't heed the rumble, and after the movie, went to bed as usual. Luckily, given that I live with many other people, I am really careful not to leave my things out in common areas, mainly to be polite. Those that had left their purses, cellphone and wallets out in public were not so lucky -- and most of them ahd changed money that afternoon, meaning that hundreds of dollars were taken.
While we do have a guard, the situation has been a problematic one sinced the start. Massa is an amazing guy, and a very attentive, kind guard. Where I have had a problem, and what led us all to have a problem, is that he is 18 years old, and is our sole guardian. He lives here, and is on duty with us 24/7. Literally. He doesn't get official time off to do anything, especially sleep. So yes, Massa was asleep when whomever came in, but man, the kid has to sleep some time! A very frustrating situation. We are making room in our budget to get a nights-only guard, to relieve Massa. While this is in Massa's best interest in terms of his health - and our safety - it means less money for him overall. It's a difficult time around here...
And since I spent the entire morning dealing with this (I am the de facto House Mama... shockily enough), I missed meetings with the prison warden and the Chief of Medicine at the main hospital. Luckily those were rescheduled for tomorrow, but it's frustrating to lose a morning's work. I'm off to the Sikoroni village/GAIA clinic to do overnight guard duty with the midwives who work with our HIV+ mothers. I'll help run HIV tests, work on the new PMTCT protocol, and attend births with the midwives. Hopefully there will be lotsa mamas to make up for my crappy morning!
update:
we looked into talking to the police, and Massa went and hid in his little quarters behind the house when he heard us talkin' about coppers. Turns out that when a house gets robbed, the guard is guilty if no one else is found... which means Mass would basically get the crap beat out of him if we even talked to the authorities. he was genuinely scared. so, obviously, we're not reporting this. man, oh man... i'm not in any way surprised that this happened, it's just been such a bummer....
After watching a movie until 2 am, I awoken by my colleague Sophie early this morning, with the news that we had been robbed. Before anyone freaks out, no one was hurt at all in any way, they didn't go past the living room into the area where our bedrooms are.
Yesterday I noticed that the front door that goes from our courtyard (the house is walled... typical expat haven) to the dirt-road/plaza was broken, and couldn't be closed. Something inside me said "something bad is going to happen tonight..." but alas, I didn't heed the rumble, and after the movie, went to bed as usual. Luckily, given that I live with many other people, I am really careful not to leave my things out in common areas, mainly to be polite. Those that had left their purses, cellphone and wallets out in public were not so lucky -- and most of them ahd changed money that afternoon, meaning that hundreds of dollars were taken.
While we do have a guard, the situation has been a problematic one sinced the start. Massa is an amazing guy, and a very attentive, kind guard. Where I have had a problem, and what led us all to have a problem, is that he is 18 years old, and is our sole guardian. He lives here, and is on duty with us 24/7. Literally. He doesn't get official time off to do anything, especially sleep. So yes, Massa was asleep when whomever came in, but man, the kid has to sleep some time! A very frustrating situation. We are making room in our budget to get a nights-only guard, to relieve Massa. While this is in Massa's best interest in terms of his health - and our safety - it means less money for him overall. It's a difficult time around here...
And since I spent the entire morning dealing with this (I am the de facto House Mama... shockily enough), I missed meetings with the prison warden and the Chief of Medicine at the main hospital. Luckily those were rescheduled for tomorrow, but it's frustrating to lose a morning's work. I'm off to the Sikoroni village/GAIA clinic to do overnight guard duty with the midwives who work with our HIV+ mothers. I'll help run HIV tests, work on the new PMTCT protocol, and attend births with the midwives. Hopefully there will be lotsa mamas to make up for my crappy morning!
update:
we looked into talking to the police, and Massa went and hid in his little quarters behind the house when he heard us talkin' about coppers. Turns out that when a house gets robbed, the guard is guilty if no one else is found... which means Mass would basically get the crap beat out of him if we even talked to the authorities. he was genuinely scared. so, obviously, we're not reporting this. man, oh man... i'm not in any way surprised that this happened, it's just been such a bummer....
posted by María Victoria Albina at 8:40 AM
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