Nov7 Written by:Kayle
11/7/2009 11:39 PM
The strangest thing happened today. The dogs were barking like crazy at the front gate. Normally they will bark like that at the neighbors dogs or if someone is walking by on the street (which is rare since we live at the end of a dead end road). Anyway, Mat went to see what they were barking at. He said, “The gate is open!” What? I didn’t leave it open. When he went down to see what was going on, he saw the padlock of our gate dropped in the middle of the road a few yards away. Apparently someone had come to steal the padlock off of our gate and once they took the padlock off, the dogs pushed through the gates and chased this person away. This person must have dropped the padlock in fear as he ran. Why would anyone want to steal the padlock if they don’t have a key to it? A local friend suggested that they may want to steal it so that when you go to lock it at night, you find it is gone and you don’t have time to go out and buy another one. This then leaves you vulnerable to robbers at night who can easily come onto your property. GREAT! I asked our colleague why us! Do we have signs on our foreheads that say, “Rob me!” He said, “Yes, you actually do—your skin is white and your accent screams American, which means that you have money.” The thinking of the locals is that if you have a lot, then I can take from you because you don’t need it or won’t miss it. This is not stealing, it is just taking. There is nothing wrong with it unless you are caught. Once deemed a “tsotsi” or a robber, you’ll be shamed by society. Guess there is no escaping the burglaries. We try to live simply and not “look” as if we have money, as some have suggested for us to do. We’ve also been told that if you don’t have the fancy electric fencing and electric gates, then it doesn’t look like you are trying to protect your belongings and burglars will think you don’t have anything to steal. We’ve tried all of this, but ultimately that doesn’t really seem to matter. Our skin and accents deem otherwise.
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