Mugged...

So the weirdest thing happened the day I finished my exams on thursday. The exam went pretty well - and I'm now finished my entire undergraduate degree! That's pretty exciting!

So after my exam myself and Ali went to Victoria St markets which is a bit dodgy but not too bad. To get back to workshop to catch the taxis home we walked along a fairly main street, but not the main drag. When we first got here people told me stories of how people will watch you on your phone then come up to you and really quietly demand your phone or wallet or whatever in really crowded public places during the day. And if you say no and try and make a scene or something they stab you. Very much like that scene on the train in Tsotsie for anyone who saw that AWESOME movie. So the lesson was if anyone ever asks for your phone or whatever, you give it to them. So i'd known this, and I know a guy from Germany got mugged in Workshop a few weeks ago, but he was there after all the outside stalls had shut down and just before it gets dark which i think is just plain stupid. Then there was a news story about a french tourist who was stabbed outside the townhall - right next to workshop in the middle of the day - but I don't know why, like if it was an attempted mugging or whatever, the article didn't say. But in general I thought I was always careful: never answered phone in public downtown, kept only small amount of cash on me and in different places on my person, and was only there during the day when lots of people were around... and figured I should be fine.

So as Ali and I were walking back from Vicotria St markets along a road I thought was fine, I hear something about 'phone' in the background. I just ignored it and kept walking coz i'm so used to hearing hawkers trying to sell you crap. So as it got closer I kept walking and said 'no thanks' figuring someone was trying to sell me a phone. Then all of a sudden from no where this guy cuts me off by jumping in front of me, grabs my hand and says quietly but very seriously 'No I want YOUR phone'. I didn't even think, but for some reason my first reaction was to lie through my teeth and answer 'I don't have a phone'. No idea why i even said that - it was a gut reaction. So he steps across to Ali and I say again without thinking 'No neither of us have a phone, we're only here for a week'. Then I can't exactly remember what happened, but he sort of laughed and said 'look at your sister she's so scared she wants to run away' and I think i said something like 'yes, your scaring the crap out of us' and then it got weird coz he said 'im joking' or something and we kind of almost ran - walking incredibly fast away and he was laughing. So I'm not totally sure what happened. I'm convinced if i gave him my phone he would have taken it, but he also didn't stab me when I didn't - which i'm incredibly grateful for!

Talking to Ali, apparantly he came up behind us and i was like 2 steps ahaed of Ali. He was saying "I just need a phone, I just need a phone" and all i heard was 'phone' so like a ditz i had said 'no thanks' and kept walking. Ali was thinking 'shit what are we going to do' but didn't have time to react before he stopped me. Then she couldn't beleive what I said and told me she kept watching his hands expecting him to pull a knife! So all that makes me think he was for real... i don't know it was all so weird. But it all worked out for the best - i lost neither phone nor wallet and didn't get stabbed! All in all a good day!

PS next time (which hopefully will not happen) I will try and just hand over the phone...