I wanted to write a short post about an incident I had yesterday that I feel helps illustrate some of the daily safety things on our mind. While Dakar is a pretty safe place, especially in comparison to many other parts of Africa and even West Africa, it is still a huge city which comes with risks and safety concerns. We know of many people who have had their homes broken into in our neighborhood or who have been mugged on the street.
As someone who grew up in Midland, Michigan I definitely did not grow up with these kinds of safety concerns (if you know Midland than you can understand this). In a town of 40,000 with low crime rates (in the parts of town I lived) it was easy to feel pretty “safe” without having to take a lot of specific safety measures. I knew that when we moved I would have a lot of growing to do in being more aware of my surroundings and thoughtful in my actions from a safety and security standpoint.
Thankfully, our agency sent us to an intensive security training in 2021 before we moved which was an invaluable preparation tool. We also have a great missional community here who give us wisdom and guidance in this area. Additionally, the Senegalese people are a protective people. Most homes are surrounded by walls and many have a guard stationed outside, but there are also boutique owners, store employees and neighbors who have looked out for us.
One tip we were given from an American family who used to live in Dakar is to befriend the guards all along the paths you typically walk. Not only is it culturally appropriate, but it ensures that you have an extra set of eyes watching your back. Coming from the Midwest this practice has been quite enjoyable to implement. Each time we pass guards we smile and say hello, how are you, how is your family and so on. The guards on our most frequented routes through our neighborhood to get to Mia’s school, our teammate’s house or the store are the ones we know the best and we’ve even given them sweet treats. They are incredibly kind and friendly with us and our kids. It really is a beautiful culture.
A final piece of background information that will be helpful for this story is the route we take to get to DA (Mia’s school) from our home. Especially for me this is the main route I walk throughout the week. When we leave our home we walk our short dirt road to get to the first busier street. After that we can choose to take a side street (which we refer to as Mawa’s Street since there is a restaurant named Mawa’s on that street) that is a direct shot to Mia’s school or go a block further and walk the busy, main street to her school. Mawa’s street is typically what we take, as does most of the DA community heading to the school from that direction.
We have been warned, however, that this street has a bad reputation as a hot spot for muggings since it is more isolated. In general in our area the biggest threat for muggings is from men on motos. Two of them will ride one moto so that the person on back can hop off, snatch a bag, jump back on the moto and then easily take off and jump on the highway not far from us, never to be seen again. This is unfortunately all too common and these moto-bandits especially like to target people on Mawa’s Street where it is less likely for a passerby or guard to be around and intervene.
Thankfully this year DA has stationed a guard partway down the street which has certainly helped increase security on this road. Aside from that we just use wisdom. If it seems particularly empty down the road we opt to take the main road. I don’t wear my purse on display or keep all my valuables in one, obvious spot. Things like that. In general it doesn’t feel too unsafe because there are typically lots of other DA families walking that same route during the times I would be walking it (for pick up or drop off).
Anyway, onto the story. This was supposed to be short, but I’m long winded, what can I say *picture me shrugging my shoulders*.
Yesterday Desmond and I walked to Mia’s school to pick her up. We left a little early to hit up a small market that is held on campus on Mondays. Since I knew I would have a lot to carry back I decided to wear a back pack and carry our cooler bag, stuffing my valuables into the back pack. On the way there I noted that the roads were unusually quiet for the afternoon, but quickly remembered it was a holiday and many people were out of town. Still, as I went to turn down Mawa’s road I hesitated because of how empty it was. Before committing to this route I made sure the DA guard was out. The walk down this road is about three blocks before reaching Mia’s school. Desmond and I greeted the guard as we passed and continued on without issue. We did our shopping, chatted with some friends and picked up Mia. Then we headed home.
Again, the road was quite empty, but I knew the guard was still there so Mia, Desmond, too many groceries and I headed down the street towards home. Almost immediately I noticed a moto driving behind us with two men on it. This is something I am always aware of so that I can keep an eye on them. I noted that we were walking on the sidewalk to the left of the street and they pulled off and stopped on the right of the street. They were behind us so I wasn’t sure why they stopped, but I just made sure to keep my ears open for when they started moving again. Soon we got to the guard. Since I had only done a short greeting earlier in order to make it to school on time to pick up Mia I stopped and chatted with him for awhile. The kids groaned and inched forward, wanting to get home and out of the sun.
After saying our goodbyes to the guard we kept walking. At this point Desmond and I were walking in the road and Mia was on the side walk next to us. As we approached an even smaller side street connected to Mawa’s street I noticed two men interacting loudly. One was in a dirty, brown shirt and seemed disheveled. He had his voice raised saying something to the other man who was in blue.
In our security training before we moved, one of the concepts we learned was JDLR which stands for Just Doesn’t Look Right. It represents that off feeling you sometimes get when you see someone or some situation and you know that something isn’t right. The man in brown was a definite JDLR and for no other reason than his association with the man in brown, so was the man in blue.
The man in brown broke away from the other man who just stood in the street watching after him. As the man in brown drew near us Desmond and I were walking right past a car parked on the sidewalk to our left (Mia was passing the car on it’s other side since she had already been on the sidewalk). I had already slowed my pace and intentionally put Desmond and I as close to the car as possible to give the man a wide berth to walk down the middle of the road past us, but I slowed even further as he stared at us, saying something I couldn’t understand. Then, at the last moment, instead of passing to the right of us he swerved in front of us, causing me come to a complete stop and shift further into the road to allow him space to pass between us and the car. I still couldn’t understand what he was saying (it may have been in difficult to follow French or the local language Wolof, which I don’t know), but I just shook my head and avoided eye contact, trying to indicate I was not interested in interacting, regardless of what he was saying.
He walked past us but slowed and kept his head turned, still talking at me. I turned as well, not wanting my back to him and to ensure Mia made it past the car and came by Desmond and I. At this point I could see that the DA guard had seen the whole exchange and was coming towards us, not with worried haste, but with definite intentionality. I turned back the way we were headed to slowly move forward with the kids and to check the status of the man in blue. He had also watched the exchange, but then kept walking. I felt concerned about his intentions since I had first seen the two of them talking, but was thankful he was walking ahead of us in the same direction so I could keep an eye on him. The DA guard met the man in brown in the middle of the road, spoke with him and after that the man walked away from us.
As all of this took place the moto from earlier began moving up the street again from where it had been stopped. The DA guard continued to walk a little ways behind us in a protective manner. Since he was in the road the moto pulled up, stopped next to him and the two men said something to him. I was already on edge from all of this and thus quite wary of these men, but needed to cross the road so used their stop to talk to the guard as an opportunity to cross, then kept all three of us on the side walk and moving at a fast enough pace to be moving quickly, while still leaving space between us and the man in blue up ahead. I watched closely as the moto passed us and turned the corner. I was so relieved the DA guard followed until we had turned the corner as well. Up ahead we had one more stretch of street to walk before turning down our street. Thankfully there was a group of guards we know on that corner having lunch.
Feeling a bit rattled we walked up the street and prepared to cross. As I looked I realized the men on the moto had gone to the end of the road and turned around so they were heading back towards us. Even though we had plenty of time to cross I waited until they had passed and watched the guards across the street. One of them watched the men drive away as well then shook his head reproachfully.
We made it the rest of the way home without incident. It turned out the man in blue just happened to be headed the same way. The man in brown was very likely mentally ill or intoxicated. And there’s no way to know for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the men on the moto were thieves.
All of this to say, I am learning! You just never know who is passing you or what their intentions are. Don’t ignore those gut feelings. Say hello to the guards, you want them watching your back, especially as a woman walking alone (or alone with kids). Don’t do things to make yourself an obvious target (wearing a purse, having a phone out etc.). And type out a blog post to process those feelings of anxiety and mistrust that can come from living in a foreign culture or a big city. Be thankful for the people God has placed in your life (guards, neighbors, Christian community, boutique owners, cleaning women, friends, goat herders, soccer players) and for the privilege of living overseas to live life alongside them, even at the risk of moto-bandits and other potentially unsavory characters.
– Selina