I got up this morning and spent a bit of time at the marina
office where there is free internet chatting on facebook and reading my
e-mails, came back to the boat and ate breakfast with HS who was watching the
lastest CBC news broadcast (bus accident in BC and snow storms in eastern
Canada and hockey woes) then put on sunblock, gathered up my camera, and went
out for a walk.
My express goal was to find a tourist information office and
get a map of the area and some information on recommended things to do. I
started out along the waterfront, walking on a busy sidewalk beside a four lane
one way road, because HS had said he thought the bus terminal was in that
direction, and I thought a bus map might be a good addition to the tourist map
I didn’t yet have. There certainly were busses galore, and stops like literally
every 50 metres, street side stalls selling sunglasses or ice cream or things
to drink. It wasn’t really a tourist area but it was pretty busy and I have to
say, I felt completely safe. It soon became obvious that if the bus station was
nearby I had missed it and I was going in the wrong direction for almost
anything else. I was sort of in one of those old industrial zones full of dead
warehouses that you see in scary movies – should been my first hint. But even
as pedestrian traffic thinned out I kept on going hoping that something more
interesting would materialize. A tourist traffic sign said that the Church of
Iglesia or somesuch was 3 miles ahead, I could see it up on a hill in the
distance, and I thought I might walk there, sit in its square, have a cold
drink, and then figure out how to catch a bus back. Then… well, let’s just say
I didn’t make it to the church.
A kid came running up from behind me, a young teenager, maybe
14 or so, and slowed down to a walk just in front of me. His behaviour seemed
suspicious, I have to admit, but at the time I really didn’t think anything of
it. I noticed that he was barefoot and his clothes filthy. Not much else. There
were lots of people about, pedestrians on the sidewalk on the other side of the
road if not on my side, and cars and busses going by on the busy street. And
then a whole group of young teens, brandishing large knives, came rushing up
from behind. “Tudo! Tudo!” they were saying, which I took to mean,
‘everything’. I’ve never been threatened by a group of teens with knives
before. I don’t know if they would have actually attacked me or not. In
retrospect I assume not, that they were just threatening. But they certainly
were threatening. They held the knives in two hands above their heads and
brought them down in slashing motions towards me as if to do real damage.
“Tudo! Tudo!” they chanted. I wasn’t carrying a handbag, a wallet, or even a
money belt. I just had a few dollars tucked into an inside pocket, enough for a
cold drink and a taxi home if I got lost. And my camera, of course. My lovely
lipstick camera. I guess I should have stepped out into the street, yelled for
help, done something, anything. Instead I was just so shocked that I stood
there, quite scared actually, holding my empty hands up to show I had nothing.
(I started taking a self-defense course for women in Deep River last year but
only went to one session. I just couldn’t imagine, at all, a situation in which
I would be in dire fear of being beaten or raped. Maybe I should have continued
going.) Eventually they grabbed my camera bag, tore it off me, and ran back the
way they had come.
For a minute or two I just stood there.
An older gentleman, who had witnessed the whole thing from the
sidewalk on the other side of the street, came across to talk to me. I
convinced him to walk with me back to where it was safe. In the end he walked
all the way back to the marina with me. We talked non-stop the whole way. He
would say something in Portuguese, who knows what, and I would reply, ‘I know,
it’s all my fault, I should have realized that it wasn’t a good neighbourhood.’
Then he would say something else in Portuguese and I would reply, ‘Thank you. I
really appreciate you walking with me. I ‘m actually feeling quite shaken at
the moment and I feel much safer with you beside me.’ On and on like this we
went walking at a fair clip for about 45 minutes and talking endlessly back and
forth to each other.
When we got to the port he took me and talked to a security
guard, who told us to go and talk to a policeman, who pointed off in another
direction. But by then I just wanted to go back to the boat. What good would
reporting the crime do? There was no way I could identify the teens. I was,
actually, just glad not to have been slashed at with a large knife or two. I
tried to give the gentleman the money I had in my pocket. ‘Obrigado’ which
means ‘thank you’ is one of my few Portuguese words and I tried to convey that
I just wanted to thank him for having walked me back. But he would have none of
it. He really wanted me to do whatever it was the police had said but, by then,
shock was setting in and I was, a bit belatedly, getting panicky. I shook his
hand several times, gestured that I would like to hug him, hugged him. And came
through the gate into the safety of the marina.
I loved that little camera. I’d only had it for a couple of
months and it cost me less than a day’s pay but I was pretty attached to it
nonetheless. I had been considering moving up to a better quality one when I
got home and had wondered how I would justify buying another camera when I had
so recently bought one. At least now I have a reason.
Mostly I am concerned at my lack of action or reaction when
accosted by the teens. I was on a sidewalk beside a four lane road, traffic
must have been going by, surely if I had stepped out on to the edge of the road
and yelled for help someone would have stopped. I don’t know. Would the kids
just have run off, or slashed at me first before they left. They seemed pretty
determined. I guess a camera, even a red one, is a pretty good days haul for
them. I wonder how much they can sell it for on the black market?
So. I am still a bit shaken. I think I’ll go and post this
now. This afternoon I might go back up to the upper city tourist zone. I
scoffed at it merely yesterday as being too artificial but it is looking pretty
good at the moment. By good I mean safe. I think I’ll buy some post cards, find
a seat in one of the many squares where local musicians are playing, get a cold
drink and maybe one of the many exotic treats available, sit back and chill,
safe as can be.
(Or, perhaps, I’ll stay online a bit longer and look for a
flight home.)
Happy New Year!
