Homeless Again

June 15… As I write this I am in a comfortable bed with soft pillows.  The air is heated.  There are no creepy-crawlies anywhere.  The bad news is this is not our house; we are in a lodge in Gaborone.

Things took a turn for the weird Sunday night.  We had a very busy day.  We had taken the bus into Gaborone to buy a few more things for the house and see if I could get my cell phone to work  We were sitting in one of our few chairs around 8 pm Sunday evening after a very busy day.  I had my laptop on my lap, when someone came to the house.  8 pm is quite late to have a visitor in Botswana as people often go to bed by 9 pm.  They don’t knock in Botswana, we just heard a voice saying, “ko ko, ko ko”.  It was a man’s voice.

I quickly got up and threw something over the laptop so it was not visible.  We are taught to hide valuables so as to not appear to be a target for thieves.  I thought it might be George, the nice man who lives with his family next door.  He had offered to clean the grass out of our yard for P200 and we took him up on his offer.

I undid the two locks and opened the door, and looked through the locked burglar bar door  It was not George.  It was two Botswana guys I did not know.  They did not come up to the door but stayed back and to the left, out of the light coming from behind me (so I could not identify them?).  I could not see them clearly because the porch light was still not working (though we had told them weeks ago, during site visit, to fix it).  The two men said something about wanting to find a certain person who used to live there, someone I had never heard of.  This did not ring true, because I know the succession of volunteers who had lived in this house for more than two years.  I told them I could not help them, as they walked away the asked me, “Do you have any dogs?”

I closed and locked the door and went to a window to see if they left.  I could see a car pull away from the dirt road next to our house.  I went back outside to see if they would have been able to see my laptop and unfortunately they could, the curtains had a gap just large enough to see in.

Tish and I wondered what that was all about.  At this point we are new to Botswana and are not sure which events are normal and which are to be worried about.  I decided to err on the side of caution and called Thuso (the PC security guy).  Thuso heard my story and said that to him it sounded like it was two potential burglars, “testing the waters.”   He asked if we felt safe to stay there.  I reminded him that the window latch in one of the bedrooms had still not been fixed, but that we could lock our bedroom door from the inside and we would be ok doing that.  He called me back later to tell me he had called the Mochudi police to ask them to send some patrols by during the night.

Monday Tish and I were to go to work for the first day.  My plan was to leave at 7 am and Tish would leave at 8:20.  I decided to delay and leave when she did and walk together.  We both got to work uneventfully.  During the day our situation was the topic of many conversations:  between us and Thuso; between Thuso and the my boss, Mma Mokoti; between Thuso and Tish’s boss, Tinny; and between the Mma Mokoti and the government person who has to do with housing.  Thuso drove to my office in Mochudi after lunch and we talked in person, then we all went to the house.  I was there, Tish and Tinny were there, Thuso, Mma Mokoti, and Nozi (Mma Mokoti’s assistant), we all looked at the house and talked.  Much of the conversation was in Setswana, and we couldn’t understand much of what was said as they debated our fate.

The conclusions everyone finally came to were that:

  1. It was felt that we were being targeted by these two because we were lekgoa (white), and that they probably assumed we had things worth stealing.
  2. It was felt that the house was not as safe as it should be, being somewhat isolated.  There is only one neighbor close by.  Several years ago a constable lived in the nearby house, adding a bit of security, but she no longer lived there.
  3. The security concerns (window latch, porch light, outside lights, etc) that were to have been taken care of were not, which also did not bode well for any issues that may come up in the future.
  4. Also, the house had a “history”.  The last PC Volunteer who lived there about a year ago, was the victim of a robbery.

Given these things, it was decided that we should not stay in the house even a day longer, and they would find us another more secure house.  We were given a few options one of which was to stay in a lodge in Gabs for a few days while it was worked out, and that is what we are doing.

Coincidentally, two fellow Peace Corps volunteers, Lucas Scharmer and his wife, happen to be in the room right next to ours.  They are about to end their service after two years, and are in town tending to “close of service” business.  We chatted with them and they agreed with us that leaving the house was the right thing to do.  They also gave us the details on the robbery that occurred in that house a year or so before.

We had never heard the details of the robbery before and it was worse than we thought.  A married PC Volunteer couple lived there.  One night when the husband was out of town the wife was woken up a 2 am from a sound sleep by two Botswana men leaning over her, one holding a knife.  It was summertime and very hot, so she was sleeping in almost nothing.  Surprised, terrified, not knowing their intentions, she screamed.  They hit her with the butt of the knife telling her to be quiet, and they asked where her stuff was (wanting anything of value such as cameras laptops, etc).  They took what they wanted and left her alone.  The poor girl was then in the house by herself for an hour waiting for the police to arrive.  No one was charged with the crime. Hearing this story from Lucas confirmed that we were correct in leaving the house.

Now we are sort of back in limbo, waiting for something to happen.  Today, Tish caught a ride to the NGO where she will be getting some training and will get a ride back.  I decided to stay in Gabs and try to get my phone to work and visit the Peace Corps office.

We feel like the Peace Corps is doing a good job of looking out for us in this situation.  We are still here and still plan to be here for two years.  Please pray that God has a perfect place for us in Mochudi and that the Peace Corps, the DAC, and Stepping Stones will work together to find a nice, safe place for us.

This entry was posted in Peace Corps, Service - Year 1 and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.