Here we are! Yesterday was the 21st of June, officially the shortest, and darkest day of the year here. It was a pretty dark day for us, as we experienced our first Namibian mugging. We were sitting in the car with Suzanne in the front seat, John had jumped out to pick up some last minute things to take to America (we were dropping them off at the airport.) David and I were in the back seats, the car was parked on the main street in town, the busiest place and one of the safest places in town, and it was about 9:30 am. All of a sudden my door opened and a man was standing there with his ha tin his hands, he put his hat in front of me and asked for two Namibian dollars, but before I could say anything another man opened Suzanne’s door then two more joined them and all four of them tried to get into the car. It was terrifying to be stuck there with four grown men trying to push their way into your car. They had their hands in my pockets and then two of them started grabbing at my neck, punching me in the face in the process. Afterward I realized they were probably trying to grab my necklace. At this point David had been leaning over me to try and fight them off, and he punched one in the face to try and get his hands off me. Then a fifth man opened the opposite front door of the car and took Suzanne’s purse, they all saw that and took off. David and Suzanne jumped out of the car, Suzanne with her cane as her knee is all messed up, she only sent a few steps. We thought that her passport was in her purse so David kept running after them, that was terrifying for me too as I could not see where he ran off to. He returned after a few  minutes, the men had dispersed into the crowd and disappeared. Luckily all they got was her writing pad, some pens, her make-up, and some jewelry (so unless they are a group of cross dressing book keepers the mission was a fail for them). The worst part is that there were hundreds of people standing around but no one helped us, everyone (including police officers) just stood there watching. Ridiculous.

We are all ok, my neck is stiff from tensing up, and when I close my eyes I can still feel their hands on me. Now we know to keep our car doors locked at all times and we are buying some pepper spray today. Please keep praying for us as we are working and living in this city!