More about safety in Cape Town

Friday evening and Saturday evening I ate dinner at my new friend's house. It was very nice because I was sick of eating out. We went to the grocery store and got bread, cheese, wine, soup, and salad. Other than making those evenings relaxing and enjoyable, it was interesting to see how someone else lives in this city. At this point I had been to the house of my host, and one of his cousin's. I got to see the house of my friend in more detail and talk with him about the security issues.

Each house I saw had a separate front gate in front of the front door. You keep that locked so if someone comes to your front door you can open it but they are stuck behind the gate. That way you can find out what they want but they can not come into your house unless you open the gate. The houses all also had security systems. Most of the nicer ones had walls around the property, with razor wire or electric wire above the walls to keep people from climbing over them. At my friend's house, he also had the security system set up such that when he goes to sleep any movement in his lower floor will set off alarms.

My friend told me accounts of break-ins to his row of townhouses before they put up the electric wires. He has a small round kitchen window; one time he heard noise, came downstairs and found footprints on the inside wall under the window. Kid-sized foot prints. Although it was so nice to be in a home and have a causal meal, I realized those two evenings how much I missed being free to just walk outside whenever I wanted to. I also missed seeing yards that bleed into each other and accessible open spaces inside neighborhoods. I don't think I could live like that - other than the amazing hikes, it felt like living in a cage.