Abu Dhabi 15.12.2009

Life isn’t all fun and games.
Going on holiday is always a bit stressful in that it means leaving family and friends behind and SA is not a safe place. Roland and Caron were attacked in their driveway several months ago and the other night my brother and his wife were attacked at their home. Now we have just heard that a friend and his wife were violently attacked in their home. Thank goodness they are OK. One just wonders, desperately what can be done to overcome this culture of violence and crime. There are so many contributing factors, poverty, anger , the broken families, the whole history of SA. We can say ‘what if’ and ‘if only’ but so far all solutions tried have not broken the cycle of crime. So, here in safe Abu Dhabi I worry and worry about our people at home.
Those of you who don’t live in SA probably wonder why we stay. Well there are many reasons but for me its - family, friends (these are treasured more and more as one gets older) , finances but also - it is a wonderful country with so many wonderful people. I love living in SA but hate the fact that there is always a bit of fear in everything we do. Most, naturally not all, of the criminals are black people but at the same time the ‘badies’ are such a minority. Most of our people are so lovable - warm hearted, kind and full of laughter in spite of all the poverty and their difficult lives. Teaching the disadvantaged black youngsters at St Mary’s Outreach and Mitzvah makes me realise what potential there is and also how difficult many of their lives are. So we all battle on - the rich and the poor, the privileged and the sadly underprivileged. The worry and the fear cannot and must not spoil our joy in living.

Rob’s letter copied below with his permission is an illustration of how so many South Africans live and survive :

"The sequence of events – as far as I can remember -was as follows:
On Tuesday evening 8th December, at 9pm we went out to the stables to give the horses teff and carrots. All of the dogs had been inside with us. All of the dogs came outside, but only ET came to the stables with us. We went back inside and put Digby to bed in the scullery. We went to bed. About an hour later, we heard Digby barking, and we went downstairs. He had pooed all over the scullery floor. We realised that he had been poisoned. We put him outside while Astrid cleaned the said floor. We couldn’t find him. I phoned the emergency vet. Eventually I found him lying in a flower bed near the pond. We put him in the car and rushed him to the vet.
We left him there and went home. The other dogs seemed to be fine. We put them in the scullery, and went to bed. When we went down in the morning, JJ was lying in a pool of blood. He couldn’t move. We rushed him to the same vet, but he died while we were there. Digby survived until Friday morning, but the vet couldn’t do any more for him. I went and said goodbye to him, and he was euthanased on Friday. The cruelty to our dogs really upsets us.
We were expecting a visit, but they took us by surprise when we went out to the stables at 9pm on Thursday 10th December. Three of them came at us from the far end of the stables when we switched on the light. One had a balaclava on his head, so we wouldn’t recognise him. One had a pistol which he pointed at Astrid’s head. We both prayed, which helped us to keep calm. They wanted to take our rings, but Astrid refused, and I couldn’t get mine off. They kept on demanding guns and money. They were the same evildoers who poisoned the dogs. I asked one this and he said “Yes.”
In the meantime, ET was our real heroine. She barked at them, but they did not shoot her. She then ran to the boundary fence, and barked and barked and barked.
They tied my hands in front of me, and escorted us inside. We went into Astrid’s study, and she gave them some money. They kept on demanding guns and money. We told them that we don’t have guns. They emptied drawers. They demanded to know where the safe was. We took them down to the safe and opened it. They emptied the safe, which only had documents such as passports, wills etc in it.
They took us up to our bedroom, and wanted Astrid’s jewellery. They found her jewellery box, and took all her jewellery. My wallet was lying on the bed. They emptied it, took the money, but left my credit cards, driver’s licence, etc. They also took 2 of my old watches. They emptied my gym bag, and put all of our old shoes in it. They took my cellphone.
At this stage, the phone above the bed rang. One guy picked it up, and put it back on the cradle. It rang again, and he let it ring. We think that they panicked at this stage, and they pushed us into the en suite bathroom. They locked the door, and left the house. Astrid heard them going down the steps.
I opened the bathroom window, and we both screamed to the neighbours to contact the police. The neighbours had already activated the walkie talkie radio system, and called the flying squad and ADT.
They called back to us. The next thing we knew, a neighbour’s son-in-law, who is a policeman, came in fully armed, and released us from the bathroom.
We were both most impressed with the police reaction. The flying squad came, very quickly, in force. ADT also came. A number of our neighbours also came. They put their lives on the line for us that night. The policeman who does the fingerprints also came. Two people, who live down the road, Keith and his son Scott, slept in our lounge that night. Neither of us slept much that night.
At about 9.15 p.m., Charles Farrell, who is a tenant in a flat over the road, heard that there was a problem here. He somehow connected me with a member of the homecell, Cathy Greaves, and he phoned her. She phoned the other members of the homecell, and they started praying.
They were praying for us while the robbery was taking place. This is amazing, and we are convinced that the prayer had a very positive impact on the outcome.
Another member of the church lives in Potgieter Road. She phoned Gavin Lock, one of the ministers. He did not hesitate,and came immediately. He spent at least 2 hours with us, which helped tremendously.
We refuse to let these people dictate to us, in respect to the way in which we live, as this would be giving in to satan.
We went to the homecell Christmas function on Friday night. This also helped a lot, as we told many people what had happened. We are trained trauma counsellors. This also helped, as we knew not to antagonise them in any way.
Also, Astrid sang in the Symphony Choir Christmas concert at the Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton City, on Saturday night."