Safety and Security

The barbed wire on the fences around our house. The jagged, broken glass on the fences around our house.
Dustin's bed, with the mosquito netting around it.
The front of our house.
Our backyard (with Kami).

Hello all,

Many have been wondering why I have not updated my blog in awhile. No reason, really. I think mostly that things have become more comfortable and routine here, so there does not seem to be as much to write about.

Next week, we are going on vacation to South Africa, so I will definitely have more to write about then. In the meantime, here are a few tidbits that I thought might be interesting.

Two days ago, I got a call from the kids' school, stating that school was being cancelled for the following day. Apparently, a march was going to be happening close to the school, and they were worried about potential violence, such as stone throwing. Last year, there was a similar march, and the school ended up being locked down because of violence. This year, they decided to play it safe, and just cancel school. I can pretty much bet that this lost day will not be made up later in the year. The march was in support of the president of the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). Many locals took this day as a holiday and simply did not show up for work. It was not an official holiday, though many stores were closed, and we were told to stay off the streets for safety purposes.

Speaking of safety, I'm going to try to include some pictures in this blog. A couple of the pictures are of the fences around our house. On one of them, you can see the barbed wire. This is on all the fences around the house. Another picture shows jagged pieces of glass on the fence. This is also on most all of the fences around our house. And in one of the pics, you can see a small part of our green gate (this is the gate that we come through to get into our yard). This has spikes on it. All the houses around here have similar "safety" features.

When we drive through town, there are traffic cops all over the place. They wear these bright, yellow long sleeved shirts, and the people here call them "the canaries". They don't seem to do a lot to help traffic. Their main function seems to be to pull cars over to the side of the road, and try to get money from the passengers. They will actually step in front of your car, so that you can't go anywhere without running them over. They especially like to pull over Americans, as they know we have money. We have been instructed to not give them money. They try to tell us that the registration papers of the car are not in compliance, or the car does not have the safety equipment that is required (fire extinguisher, etc), and that is why they are fining us. However, the cars that are driven by drivers from Bill's company are always in compliance, so they really have nothing to go on. They just try to intimidate you into giving them money. Sometimes they will even open your doors and get into the car and not leave until you give them money. That is why we are always supposed to have our doors locked. We are supposed to pretend that we don't understand anything they say, and just let our driver handle it. My car has not yet been pulled over, but when I go places with another one of the women here, without fail, we get pulled over. Her husband is the general manager of the company, and her family has been here the longest, so all the "canaries" know her car, and hope to get money from her. They never do, but they keep trying.

Another interesting thing that I have noticed is that most of the stores here seem to just be just small doorways cut into walls. I can't explain it well, and unfortunately, I can't take a picture of them either. There are no signs on the stores. All of the store names, or advertising is actually painted onto the buildings. Even things that are commercial logos (Simba beer) are all hand done on individual buildings, and they are quite good.

We have finally gotten our own driver, and this has been really nice. We no longer have to call dispatch everytime we want to go somewhere. One time, I had called dispatch to come get me so I could pick the kids up from school. It took them 50 minutes to get to my house, and by then, the kids had already been out of school for 15 minutes. Luckily, I was able to send a friend to go get the kids, so they didn't have to wait long. After that incident, I really pushed to get our own car, and it finally happened. It is nice having your own driver, because they seem to have more vested in your family and your safety. The dispatch drivers drive so many people around, that they don't really get attached to anyone, so they don't care as much. Our driver's name is Nikko, and I like him. He is always on time, and seems to really want to learn English. He is polite and respectful, and has quickly learned our schedule.

School seems to be going better for the kids. They have both made some friends, and they are no longer saying that the kids are picking on them. I still do not believe the curriculum is doing much for them, but they are learning things in history and geography that they probably would not be learning in the States. I am working on supplementing their curriculum here, and hope to keep them up with the AZ school standards. Tomorrow we have parent/teacher conferences, so we'll see what the teachers have to say about the kids! Then, the kids have a week off school, hence our trip to South Africa.

I'll post again, once we get back from our trip!

Laurie