Round 2

Hey all,

Officially three months in, and it’s been jam-packed. We had a pretty quiet week after the break-in, laying pretty low and getting our heads wrapped around what had happened. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a one-time deal, and we were broken into exactly one week later last Thursday night. We didn’t realize it until we all went to bed, but someone had climbed up onto the balcony that overlooks our walled-in yard and used a cracked window to get into my roommate’s bedroom. They took his wallet, including credit cards and cash, his watch and two soccer jerseys, and then opened the sliding door and jumped back down into the yard. This all took place between 8 and 10ish while we were eating dinner downstairs. After the initial disbelief faded, we were all pretty shaken and angry. We called the cops around 2 am, again at 3, while we sat in the living room jumping at every noise we heard. At 4 we decided to get some sleep, and all brought our sleeping bags into one room upstairs. While we were moving our stuff around, I thought for a minute that the robber had been in my room and stolen a wad of cash I had in my backpack, transport money for our coaches that I was in charge of – total around $450. I flipped out before realizing I had moved it to a different hiding place in the bag. Aside from being scared that I’d lost the money, I was angry that this person has gotten so deep into my mind that I can’t think straight before jumping to some conclusions. It was a long night; one I spent lying awake listening for someone to try to break in again.

The next morning was mostly routine: we got ready for work, made some calls to our supervisors, and went to the office. Our wonderful maintenance man, Sheppard, came to the house and bolted the windows shut where the robber had climbed in. He was shocked, asking the same questions as we were: who the hell are these people? The total weirdness of what happened was accentuated by the fact that Sheppard had waved us down on Thursday morning as we were leaving for work to show us that someone had tried to get into one of the empty, furnished condos closer to the gate. The would-be robber tried to pry the window open next to the sliding door leading out to the yard, but the door was secured shut with a lock that had been installed at the top of the door. I’m sure he meant well, to give us an idea of how these guys think, but it was pretty eerie to actually see a failed attempt. We got robbed 12 hours later.

To top off all the drama, we were expecting 11 of the other interns from around South Africa to come on Friday for the weekend. We debated whether we should cancel or not, but everyone was still on for a weekend away, and we decided it would probably be a good thing for us to be with a group of people who understand where we’re at mentally, adjusting to life here and dealing with a bad situation. We ended up having a great weekend – chill, great weather for the beach, and some Halloween celebrations. It was a relief, at least for me, to have a bunch of people all looking out for each other so that I didn’t have to constantly think about the robbery.

Talking with Sheppard, he told us that people living in another complex down the road from us actually saw the robbers throw a blanket over their electric fence, and jump it with things they had stolen. These people chased the robbers into the bush behind our neighborhood, and found themselves in front of two plastic shacks where they uncovered a bunch of stolen goods. They informed the police, who refused to go check the shacks out. The people who found these shacks also told the police they could identify the robbers among the men who wait around down at our gas station, looking for work, but the police again were not interested.

Did they sit back and wait to get robbed again? Nope. They formed a group and went back to the shacks, recovered their stolen possessions, and then torched the shacks. A big f-you to whoever has been creeping around. I also sent my regards vicariously through that bonfire.

At this point, we’ve made some security updates and are working on getting some sort of legit security system…German Sheppard? We all agree that if we do get a dog, we’ll fight for who gets to keep it, smuggle it out when we leave, as South African German Sheppard puppies are much better than the American version (at least in our opinion). It was tough week mentally, jumping at any and all random noises, imagining noises when they’re not there, and generally not sleeping well. I was pretty nervous about being home last Thursday night, as this creep seems to enjoy prowling through the neighborhood and our belongings on Thursdays, but we had a beautiful day – sunny and warm – went surfing, grabbed dinner, and then went home to find it securely locked and untouched.

Away from the negatives, we’re organizing one of our VCT (voluntary counseling and testing) tournaments for 28th November, and it’s non-stop at the office every day. These tournaments involve teams competing from schools is the communities where we run our curriculum, and participating in Skillz activities between games. They are able to test for HIV for free, and counseling is available for those who test positive. We have been trying to nail down a venue, prizes, security, the list goes on and on. One huge aspect of a VCT is getting a celebrity or two to make an appearance to draw in people who otherwise wouldn’t be interested. We’re probably going to get a widely popular DJ from the area to emcee, and we may get one or two Bafana players (SA men’s national team) to show up. Bafana is playing Japan at our stadium on 14 November, and we managed to get them to agree to sign a t-shirt that we can give away as a raffle prize. One of Bafana’s players, Khanyeza, is featured in our Skillz dvd that we use in trainings, and he may make an appearance and talk about our VCT on the radio when he’s in town. It’s stressful, but really exciting. We’re trying to make this our largest VCT ever in GRS, with the buildup to World AIDS Day on 1st December and the World Cup on 4th December.

Congrats if you made it all the way through this blog. I’ll try to write more often so you’re not reading a dissertation on my life each time.

Stay warm,
Rosie