Night of the Pangas

There is a darker side to the ex-pat life here. Not long ago three of our colleagues were staying in a guest house in Lilongwe and each of them woke to four men armed with pangas, a type of machete, standing round their beds. Almost certainly an inside job with the place's guards they took everything from them, but mercifully no one was hurt.

I simply can't imagine how terrified I would be if it happened to me. It isn't that common but its not uncommon. Our American friends' guard has been attacked and the tyres stolen from their car three times now and, completely understandably, the girl is having trouble sleeping. It would be hard (though not impossible) for someone to break into a domestic house in the night, but someone was tied up and robbed at home at 10am two Sunday mornings ago.

Thankfully, I think (hope) that we are relatively safe here in the hut, we're certainly as safe as we can be. Crime is relatively low in Malawi, the second safest country in Africa, but that is still a relative measure. The difference in wealth and what I think is a greater normalisation to violence, makes us automatic targets. You place so much trust in your guards, it begs the question whether you are actually creating a vulnerability and would be better not using them and staying more vigilant / building better defences?

But its not really an either or. I'll take guards, barred windows, padlocks, barbed wire, attack alarms and constant vigilance and pray that we're OK. With the vice-president two doors up, we're never far from the army anyway and I will continue in my 'give the guards regular food and thanks' strategy.

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