Had some excitement last night. About 11:30 p.m. I awoke to the sound of breaking glass. My first thought was that someone downstairs had dropped a glass. When I was fully awake I realized that would not be as their kitchen is not under our bedroom. Just as I was drifting off I heard wood ripping. I got up and looked out our bedroom window towards the house next door. I could not see anything, but as I was looking I again heard ripping wood so I looked more carefully. On the stairs to the back door of the house next door was a man. I watched for a few minutes until I realized that he had a crowbar and was trying to break into the house. I softly called Scott who, of course, did not hear. I walked over to the bed and touched his foot as I said, "Scott, there is someone trying to break into" and before I could finish he was up out of the bed looking around wildly. I am sure his adrenaline was pumping. I restate the first of my sentence and ended with "next door." We walked to the window but because the moon was in the wrong place Scott could not see him. The burglar then tried to beat the door or the window next to it with the crowbar. I can not imagine how he thought he could make that kind of a racket and not wake us up. Anyway, Scott leaned into our screen and in the deepest, loudest voice he said, "What are you doing?" The burglar stopped moving for a moment so Scott yelled at him again. This time the burglar turned, raced down the stairs, threw the crowbar into the bushes and ran into our backyard which combines with the house next door's yard and is dense in undergrowth and goes a long way before it hits the street. I then heard someone yelling from the apartment below us, so we went out to see who it was only to be met by our landlady, her mother, and son. They, too, had been awakened by the breaking glass. They had called the police. In about four or five minutes, five or six police drove up in a white sedan driven by some guy who was driving past the police station in his private car. When our landlady told them where the burglar had gone they took off again in the civilian's car to meet him on the street behind us. I really did not expect to see them again until they had searched the back yard. It was just a few minutes before they returned, got out of the car, and came into our yard to see. They looked and left. Not one went into the other yard. No one asked us any questions. Only one had a weapon. A nightstick. We went back to bed.
I laid awake until 3 o'clock feeling very vulnerable. I was not afraid. I just realized how little protection we had. The Samabula police do not have cars. They had to stop the civilian and tell him to drive them to our house. They are not allowed to carry any weapons only night sticks. It is illegal for everyone in Fiji to have a gun except the military who are at the present time also the running the government. Help here is not readily available, not very competent. Scott has decided we need a baseball bat under the bed. He will not find a baseball bat in Fiji. I am not afraid. Heavenly Father will take care of us, but I can not imagine living where real help is not quickly available.
Along this same line, five convicts escape prison and robbed an ATM machine yesterday. The military has set up road blocks on all the major roads looking for them. It will be interesting to see if they catch them.
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