This time it was my turn

Many times I wondered if one day it would happen to me. I'd heard many cases during my time here but I thought that my house was secure... Well, two weeks ago the managed to break into my compound. The thieves made a hole in the wall that separates our compound from the reality, and they broke first into my neibour's house, the closest to the wall. When I heard the scream of my neighbour I knew something was happening. I tried to phone the police but they didn't reply, and I was wondering what to do when they started to break my front door, and I had just enough time to escape to through the back door and raise the alarm. The security team took around 10 minutes to arrive, and this was enough time for them to take most of my things and rape my neighbour..

The hours after the burglary were horrible. I went to the hospital with my neighbor so that she could receive post exposure profilaxis (to avoid HIV infection), and then to the police to make statement and ask them why they didn't pick up the phone when I rang them at night.. Then I tried to get to work on foot, because they took m bike and didn't even have cash to get a minibus. I was so upset that I was trying to walk without looking to the people that I was crossing on my way. Trying to deny their smiles and greetings until finally I had to smile to somebody and I realised that I cannot stop loving this people and this country for a bunch of bastards.

This type of crime is common in South Africa and is increasingly frequent in other nearby countries like Malawi. I can understand robberies. Many times I thought that if I was a Malawian living in extreme poverty and I would see the houses of the rich people next door to my township I could contemplate assaulting them but... why the violence? I was lucky that I could run away and didn't confront those guys, but I cannot remove from my mind what they did to my neighbour and wonder why.