the Robbery.

inspector gadget works. .

Another post I don't want to focus on too much, because I have never felt unsafe here Tanzania. I do not want this incident, that could truly happen anywhere in the world, to Tarnish Tanzania. It was very, very unfortunate that it happened.

Tanzania is one of the safer countries I have visited, in fact, When I have female solo clients book, I am never fearful of them coming to Tanzania. There are no guns here, or mass killings. Yes, there is petty crime, but this is nothing in comparison to the news I remember hearing/seeing back home in the states, where school shootings have become the new normal.

I contemplated skipping this post altogether, but I know that most people will skip a majority of the blog posts that have a positive title and go straight to the negative ones. Sucks that is how it is, but I get it. Most people will want to hear about your sufferings rather than your trimuphs. Perhaps this is just out of bordem/gossip, or perhaps it justifies hearing about someones sufferings to somehow make them feel better, especially when it is about someone that is truly going for it in life. Perhaps seeing/hearing about sufferings and challenges of someone truly going for it justifies in their mind why they themselves never truly went after something they wanted in life. Regardless, I know I have to cover this subject.

When we told Ryans parents of our move, of course they worried about our safety, but like Ryan pointed out to them, “have you watched the news here?” And its so true, sadly. At least in Tanzania there are no guns or weapons.

Although, occasionally, you’ll hear of looters at the scene of an accident from time to time, which is despicable... But you’ll also hear about the stories where a thief tries to reach into an open window on the bus & steal a cell phone out of the hands of a civilian, and the victim grabs his arm to stop him and then the entire bus grabs ahold of him from their windows and made the driver bring him to the police station....Civilians holding thief’s accountable for their actions. These are the types of stories you hear about that do not make you lose all hope for humanity after hearing about looters raiding a scene of an accident to steal instead of offer help.

At the time of my break-in, we already had a million little fires of chaos happening in our lives, but we were juggling them all as usual. I happen to be on mainland by myself, I came for a few reasons, but IVF treatment was the main reason. IVF is one of the most emotional, physical, mentally challenging things anyone could possibly sign themselves up for. I think of myself to be a pretty strong headed individual; IVF brought me to my knees over and over again. (Why isn’t this talked about? How severely taxing IVf is?) Although I am thankful IVF exists, I would noy wish it on anyone. Perhaps it was not the best of times to begin, with all of the stresses in our lives. But, this had become our new normal. So fuck it, I signed up for it.

I was staying at a really nice resort, beautiful ocean views from the second floor, in a section of Dar es Salaam called, Masaki. All the funky, boho spots and amazing restaurants found here here in the area.. I love this area. I would walk to and from the IVF clinic which was quite a hike, but I didn't mind it. I loved the walk. So many locals wanting to chat or try to invite you in for something to drink.

I had been at the resort for about 11 days, sitting on my balcony working on the laptop. Security would wave hello to me all the time, I never felt unsafe. Ever.

I always made sure to lock the balcony, not that I would ever think of someone climbing up to this height to break in, but it was more just a habit. This particular night I had to go to the clinic in the evening, I left around 9pm and returned back to the hotel about 1030 pm. I didn't think to check the balcony door, because I knew I had checked it prior to leaving and I didn't want to risk mosquitos coming in. I went straight to bed and fortunately, I am a very light sleeper....

I opened my eyes to see a man over by my bags and i saw him put my purse under his arm and was walking towards me (I think looking for my phone). I saw up quickly and ripped the blankets off me as he darted for the open balcony slider door. I grabbed his wrists as he was already over the balcony holding on to the railing. I saw my purse fall to the ground. He looked panicked / terrified as I screamed as loud as I could and he let go of the railing, falling to the ground. I happened to have a mug out on the patio from earlier, I picked it up and chucked it at him, hitting him in the head.

I continued to scream, and no sign of security anywhere. I called down to the front desk and screamed at them. About 8 employees rushed up the stairs to my room, and I'm pretty certain I woke the entire floor up. The first thing the manager on duty said to his staff was, "WHERE IS SECURITY?" No where to be found no this side.

Shaken, I could barely pick up my phone to call Ryan to tell him what had happened. My heart rate was nothing I had experienced before. He jumped on the the next flight over.

The police came about 6 hours after the ordeal, none of them in uniform. But, I'm not surprised. They hung out in my room and outside my room taking photos and my statement, they had to have been here about 4 hours, no joke. I actually had to ask them to leave my room at one point, i just couldnt take it anymore. They Almost forgot to ask for my contact info, I'm sure they thought i was just a passing thru tourist. I only spoke English to them, leading them to think I do not know Swahili. (I have learned to play the game here). I listened to them discuss the situation and they believed it to be and inside job. They were focused on the security team whereabouts and who was on for security inside earlier that evening.

This ended up working to my advantage when I went to check out and they wanted to hand me a bill for 13 nights stay. I politely told them I was not paying for this experience, especially when I had chosen this place solely based on security alone, so to know their security guards where the suspects... I knew I had the upper hand. We worked it all out.

Although I was completely fine, it definitely did a number on me. I was nervous to run in the mornings, or nervous to take certain paths. Id have nightmares from time to time about break ins.

My IVF failed in the end. If the level of stress and physical strain on my body, I will never truly know if this had an impact on this IVF fail. .......But I will never forget it.

Ryan would want to take a certain path and id say no, he would try to reassure me to take it, "nothing is going to happen, look we have this hotel and that hotel nearby... nothing will happen."

.....i just had to be clear with him not to discredit the traumatic event i went thru, i didn't think anything was going to happen to me, staying in one of the nicer hotels in dar, on the second floor balcony. a hotel i chose specifically for the security. People always think it cannot happen, to you. But it can. ..... and it did.