safety

I wrote this post over a week ago, but due to internet problems, am just posting it. Enjoy!

Hans is thinking about joining the Muizenberg Community Watch group. He's excited about it, actually. As most of you may know, crime is a huge problem in South Africa, and the community we live in is no exception. It's not as danerous as say, Cape Town or one of the local townships, but it still has more crime than any place we've ever lived. This December we learned that crime was up 100% from last year at the same time. In one month something like 20 cars were stolen from the street we live on. That's a lot of cars. And then last night, while Hans was out with a friend, I peaked out of my blinds because I heard some noise on the street below. I saw two young men standing casually by a brand new white convertible Volvo as a group walked by. As soon as the group rounded the corner, they resumed what they had been doing which was prying the license plates off the car and sticking new ones on with packing tape. I don't know why I didn't call security right away. I didn't want to believe what I was seeing. And then they hopped in the car and cruised away.

We have not been unaware of crime here. We live with an extra level of awareness and "carefulness" all the time. We don't go out at night and if we do, we walk in the middle of the street so no one can corner us against a building or push us into an alley (and I would never walk alone at night.) We don't carry expensive items out in the open. You put your money in your wallet before you leave the store or walk away from the ATM. We don't ever take our cellphones out when walking on the street. I don't carry a purse. Hans does carry brass knuckles. Simple things like that.

We live right around the corner from a street that is known to be the worst street in Muizenberg (ironically called Church Street.) It's just a few blocks long, but has become known as the crime center of our community. Hans and I noticed some of the houses were being bricked in with cinder blocks. We read later that criminals were using the unoccupied houses to store stuff they stole until it could safely be removed from the community, so the city was just closing up the houses. Which makes me wonder about the night we were walking back from the base to our flat (about one block) when a guy ran by carrying a full sized sofa on his back. As we puzzled over this odd sight, two more guys ran by with arm chairs, and then one more with a coffee table. We wanted to believe they were helping a friend move, but that probably wasn't the case. We've since programmed the number of the "Mountain Men" into our phones so we can be good neighbors and citizens and report such incidents. MM are a private security company that have men constantly patrolling the community two by two on bikes. They respond to calls within minutes, while the police are so busy it could take hours. MM actually have "spotters" on the mountain that overlooks Muizenberg with infrared binoculars. If you call in a crime, they can locate the house and track the escaping criminal, directing the heroes on bikes with radios. It's actually quite the system. We heartily thank the Mountain Men every time we see them

So while it is different here than we're used to, we are adjusting to this extra safety layer that has been added to our lives. Like people said when we moved here, there is no reason to live in fear. If we follow the common sense safety guidelines that are a little stricter than we're used to, we'll be fine. And we do feel fine living here. We don't ignore the issue, and we don't let it control our lives. But we do want to be involved in the solution, which is why Hans is joining Community Watch. And why I need to be a little quicker with my phone the next time I see car thieves changing out plates in front of my house...