So I've already posted about how to be safe and minimize your chances of being a victim of a crime while travelling. One thing I probably didn't stress enough is that even if you do everything right, it can still happen. This morning two of my friends were walking to meet up with us for our weekend adventure in Asilah when they were accosted by two young boys with a big knife. On girl had her purse taken after trying to fight the kids off, but luckily no one was hurt.
I'm furious in a kind of useless, not-helping-and-non-specific kind of way. I'm upset that this happened to them and I'm upset that they were doing everything "right" but were still not safe in our own neighborhood. (Tourists we may appear but these are our families and our homes for the summer. We live here, we are not just snapping photos and buying souvenirs.) We got to experience the joy of hanging out in a police station (one which, I should add, had a really unsettling amount of blood spattered inside it) and filing a report. But I'm grateful to the host father of a different classmate, who helped the girls and alerted neighborhood security, to the police who helped us (and to the palace guards who helped us find the police) and to the residents of the neighborhood who helped the police in their investigation. We decided to catch a later train, so the weekend beach trip is still on. The only thing taken was cash, credit cards, ID and a camera (luckily NOT my friend's passport.) No one was hurt. All in all we've been very lucky, and I think even the girls who were robbed feel that it could have been much, much worse.
Still crime is a frightening and upsetting thing to experience. It can happen to any one at any time of day and under just about any circumstance. Being alert and prepared is the best any of us can do.
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