Ugly Truth

Yesterday afternoon, I was explaining to a few friends my master strategy if I were ever to get mugged: “I’m just going to cross my eyes, yell really loud in jibberish, and scare them away.”

However, the moment there is a rusty six-inch blade being wielded at your neck, all of that goes out the window.

I guess you can say I had a truly Cape Townian experience last night walking home. I am completely unharmed, just a little shook up, and VERY lucky. Let me explain.

So I KNOW better than to walk alone, DUH. I’m not stupid. However, I was walking home with Andrew from downtown and there is a point about 3 minutes from my house that I consider the safety-zone. It’s a short little hike up a hill and bam, I’m there. Andrew lives in the other direction, so he walked me to this point last night.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to walk you home?” he said, being the wonderful special friend he is.

“Nah, I’m fine! I’m so close! Yeah, I should probably go, there’s probably someone watching us” – hardy har har, sarcasm. Except not, because someone was.

I was about half way up the hill when I saw a white care coming down the street. Thought nothing of it, kept going. Then it slowed down. “Oh, they’re turning at this street” I saw it was 2 black men in the car “Hmmm, that’s odd for Tamboerskloof” Kept on walking. One of them got out. “Excuse me miss?…..”

The next few thoughts happened in about 1 second but went like this:

“RUN.”

But no Kaitlin, what if they are lost? You would be racist of you ran. Just trust they are seeing a friend here or something.

I should have trusted that first half second thought. Before I knew it I was up against the wall, knife above my chest/neck, and he was trying to take my bag. I remembered from Self Defense class to yell “NO!!!” Very firmly, which I did. But he was not taking NO for an answer. So I froze- gave him the bag- he patted me down to make sure he wasn’t missing my phone (in the bag), and in a flash he was gone. I had already been screaming at this point, and within seconds there were about 8 or 9 people coming out of their houses, seeing if I was ok. They were so helpful and understanding. I was just amazed. I always thought “I would totally get the license plate number of anyone who tries to pull that on me.” Ha. Not the case. In those key seconds everything simultaneously speeds up and stops, you know? Anyway, neighborhood watch was there in a flash and everyone was so kind to me. 4 people walked me home!! (the remaining 90 seconds).

I am SO SO SO lucky for many reasons. First of all, let me list the contents of my bag (happened to be my favorite bag from Bolivia… poop). Some might call it a typical Kaitlin Houlditch-Fair bag:

1 pencil

2 pens

3 bananas

5 cookies

40 Rand (about $5 )

Pepto-Bismol pills

Chapstick

Klean Kanteen (bummer)

My new raincoat (biggest bummer)

A shitty Nokia cell phone with about $1 credit left on it

And last but not least…

A Ziploc bag to put ear plugs in

SO THERE, THIEF. I HOPE YOU ENJOY MOISTURIZING YOUR LIPS AND WARDING OFF RAIN AND LOW BLOOD SUGAR YOU ASSHOLE.

I am SO glad I left my ID, credit card, debit card, cash, iPod etc. at home. Even before Andrew and I left to go downtown I showed him my new method of keeping money in that little Ziploc bag because I didn’t want my pretty red wallet to get stolen. Ha.

In hindsight so many signs pointed to it…. On the way downtown Andrew and I were approached about 3 times, on the way back another 3… being offered drugs and asked for money. I remarked at how it had never happened this many times. I remember wondering if we should just suck it up and take a cab home. When we got to the corner of the (former) safety zone, I remember thinking, ‘Wow, someone might be watching us.’ Whew. Ooky. Even if Andrew had walked me home, I doubt it would have stopped them- and then they could have taken his fiddle. I can honestly say I would rather all of the contents of that bag be taken over Andrew’s fiddle. For real. But who knows what would have happened.

But question time– Black people are never in Tamboerskloof at night usually, but IF I had run, that would have been racist, right? I would not have run if it were 2 white men because white men live in Tamboerskloof. If I had told someone at home that I ran, it probably would have gotten around and I would be Racist Kaitlin.

About a month ago, I was standing outside the gate of my internship in Observatory by myself and was approached by a woman. “Great,” I thought, “I’m going to be asked for money.” I started to say, “No, I don’t have any” When she asked me “Do you know where the train station is?” Wow, did I feel like an asshole or what. Last night, for that 1 second that determined everything, I actually remembered that woman and gave that man the benefit of the doubt. Today I looked no male in the eye.  What can you do??

Anyway, it sucked but here are the morals of the story:

1) I am so lucky and blessed- It could have been a lot worse

2) This kind of stuff happens all the time!!

3) You can plan a response to anything but in the moment it can mean nothing

4) I’m not walking alone at night anymore.

5) From now on, IM TAKING CABS.

            (and so is Andrew)

Love you all.