Today a friend of mine who lives about 5/6 blocks away wrote the following post on facebook:
OMG 4 ladrones armados acaban de asaltar a mis vecinos, y yo viendo todo creyendo que se trataba de otra cosa, robaron su automovil nuevo,celulares,ipod,omg estoy en shock ni siquiera se taparon las caras los hdp y estuvieron por mas de 5 minutos
Yo pensaba que vivia en una zona bastante segura pero la delincuencia si que ha subido en los últimos tiempos en Nicaragua, por suerte mis vecinos están bien no les hicieron daño fisico y por suerte nosotros nos dormimos temprano porque sino hubiese sido a nosotros que nos hubieran asaltado, y según contaron nuestros vecinos el primer rehén que tomaron fué a un niñito como 3 ó 4 años que le pusieron una pistola en la cabeza para intimidar aún más a mis vecinos, estuvieron dentro de la casa como 10 minutos viendo que se robaban, y la policía tardó 1 hora para venir con sus 3 patrullas!
Roughly translated: “Oh My God. 4 armed robbers just assaulted my neighbors, and me watching the whole thing thinking that something else was going on, they stole their new car, cellphones, ipod, oh my god I’m in shock, they didn’t even cover their faces the bastards, and they were there for more than 5 minutes And I used to think I lived in a safe area, but delinquency has risen lately in Nicaragua, luckily my neighbors are okay and they weren’t hurt physically, and luckily we had gone to sleep early because if we hadn’t it could have been us that they assaulted, and our neighbors tell us that the first hostage they took was a three or four year old boy, that they put a gun to his head to intimidate my neighbors even more. They were in the house for like 10 minutes, watching as they were being robbed, and it took the police an hour to arrive with their three patrols.”
The police station is less than 10 blocks away. They probably “didn’t have any gas for their cars.”
Okay, so again, I write this not to scare you all and to make you fear for me. This is just the reality of where I live, and it makes me sad, mostly to think about that little boy and how this will affect him. And while you reflect on this, I just want you to remember that there is nothing about me or you that deserves to avoid this reality any more than these people. We just got lucky to be born where we were into the circumstances that we were given, but we are no better than this family in my neighborhood, and we are no more deserving of the security that we have than they are. But we got it, and they didn’t. So my hope is that by sharing this story, you will all take a minute to be grateful for the sense of security that you have and to recognize that you have it by chance and not because you are as a person more deserving than others. That sounds a bit like an accusation, and I don’t mean it to, I just know that there are enough people living in the states who hold on to the idea that they are somehow better or that there is a real reason why they shouldn’t have to deal with this kind of fear and insecurity while others should and do. And while I have the opportunity to avoid this kind of life, I am choosing to be in the middle of it so that I don’t continue to shut my eyes to it and so that others around me feel a little bit more connected to the world than they would be by reading a newspaper article about the sad conditions in third world countries.
Happy updates to come. Because despite this there is lots of joy and happiness in this country as well.
