November Photo Challenge - Safety

Living here in Tanzania, we are the minority. This could be another post altogether & someday, maybe it will be. Today, however, I just want to focus on the issue of safety.

While there have not been any moments where we have felt threatened or in danger, we do have to be precautionary as we live and minister here. Most of the threats and dangers of living here are everywhere else in the world as well, but because we are white, we have a bit more of a target on our back. The stereotype of white = affluent is actually mostly true, so it's no wonder we are looked at as having so much!

Two families who came around the same time as us have been affected more directly than we have in regards to safety. One family, a mere four days after purchasing a vehicle, had it vandalized in their driveway during the night - parts stolen, window broken. Their water pump to their house was also stolen.  Another friend was walking to Bible study when a car pulled up next to her, pushed her down & tried to steal her belongings.

So, while we don't live in fear, we try to be smart.

We have bars on all of our windows

 

We have locks AND extra bolts on our doors. When we go to sleep at night, we actually lock most rooms off. We have a door that divides the living spaces from the bedrooms that we lock and bolt each night. We also have a security system.

 

We have a gate and our home/compound is surrounded by a wall with broken glass at the top of it. We have security lights on the house and wall that we leave on all night as well.

 

Minnie

Along with that, we have guard dogs, Frodo, Precious & Minnie. Minnie may be small, but can that little one bark!


Precious

Frodo













As we have mentioned before, we are so, so grateful to have moved into a furnished house where the family is letting us use all of their belongings.  They are moving back to Dar this summer, so we will start purchasing our own household items soon. We also got two puppies a few weeks ago, as the dogs above are only on loan. :)



Puppy #2

Puppy #1

So these two cuties are our own dogs, that we hope will be big and ferocious enough come summer to really be our guard dogs. They are half German shepherd, and half Rhodesian ridgeback - they should be pretty big. They are still nameless - feel free to comment with your suggestions!




While these precautions are not fail proof - walls can be climbed over, dogs can be poisoned, bars can be cut - we hope that they give second thoughts to anyone wondering what might be inside our walls. We do always appreciate prayers for protection, and we trust God's sovereign will for what he has for us while living here.