Safety

Some people have asked about safety here, especially since I've mentioned our guards several times. We do feel safe here. And if you feel safe in Minneapolis, it's because a) it is a safe place and 2) it's a very familiar place for you. That's how we feel about Arusha. At first everything makes you nervous, because you feel like you stand out and you don't know anything, but quickly you get used to things and places and you start to feel part of things.

That being said...it's clear that any Westerner has money, so your property can be a target, which is why most people have gates and walls around their homes, and guards. I doubt seriously that our guards would be able to defend us from serious (armed) intruders--the night guard only has a stick and the day guy is really just our gardener. What they're really for is to make sure that someone is always at the house, to answer random people who knock asking for whatever, and (OK, I'll admit it) to open and shut the gate when you come and go. Dishonest people in the area, like those types everywhere, notice patterns of who's coming and going and when. Barking dogs and gaurds just remind people that the property is being taken care of.

Now, there are some things we do a bit differently. Driving around at night is generally not encouraged--we drive home once a week from a restaurant or something, but I would not go out of town alone in a car. So going to the airport (which is about 40 miles away and the KLM plane arrives at 9:00-ish) would be out of the question unless I brought along someone with me. When I to the market, I'm very careful not to open my wallet and keep my purse very close. If we park in town, I don't leave packages or backpacks the car and often I try to park in front of a store that has it's own guard. But those things are OK if I can do that; if not, it's not a big deal.

Really, because of the color of our skin, we are afforded certain privleges. By the same token, the color of our skin also singles us out as people with money and therefore perhaps more at risk for pickpockets, etc.

The truth is, I stopped reading certain sections of the Star Tribune a couple years ago because I couldn't take reading about the lists of murders, suicides, robberies, etc. that were being published every day. We spent a week in San Diego and Los Angeles in June and didn't worry any less about being pickpocketed at Disneyland.

So there you have it. We're safe--you'll be safe when you come to visit.

By the way, this is our night guard, Godfrey. He's awesome. The kids love him and he's always up for a game of soccer or whatever after dinner. That's Ava, Happy, and Fadhili with him (our housekeeper's kids).