Rumble: Robbed.
Last week, Robert was in New York and I was on mission to Brindisi in South Italy. During our absence, our house was broken in to. They forced the front door, and gathered some stuff. Robert's Tshirts (all of them!), some of mine, a computer, a backpack, cigarettes.. They took my safari jacket.. A bummer as my passports, UNLP, vaccination cards, international drivers license were all in the inside pocket (plus all the stuff I described in this post). And the bag with my video camera. Bummer.... We're installing a grill in front of the door now.
Crime in Rome is very common. Many of my colleagues has been confronted with burglary, car theft, etc.. Often gypsies, junkies and illegal immigrants are blamed..
Maybe I have been lucky, as it is only the second time in my life I get robbed. The first time, was in Uganda. I partially described it in this post. Anyway, none of this spoils my joy in living here.
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Peter. Flemish, European, aid worker, expeditioner, sailor, traveller, husband, father, friend, nutcase. Not necessarily in that order.
2 comments:
In Cairo, the company requires us to live in a cage (everything covered with wrought iron gating), especially when living on the ground floor. Getting robbed sucks, but I think as an expat, it comes with the territory. Although usually it seems to be committed by someone on the inside, not a stranger. That's pretty much been our experience personally and from people we know. It's a pretty devastating experience, regardless of the worth of the stolen obejects.
Yeah, 'living in a cage' was also a bit the feeling I had when I lived in Africa for many years.. I guess I don't really feel like an expat while living in Italy, "After all, it is still Europe"... But there certainly is a LOT of difference between Rome and where we live in Belgium...
Plus in my previous duty station, Dubai, most of the time, I did not even bother to lock the car. Crime was minimum there. Far below the Belgian averages actually...
Anyway, its only objects and replace-able...
P.
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