The other night, at around 11 o’clock, I stood outside a karaoke bar and debated whether or not it was safe to make the block-long walk from the bar to the park. Even though I only lived five blocks away, I knew that walking on my own all the way home would have been too risky, but one block to the taxi stand? Surely it would be okay to walk along a well-lit street to the park and then have one of the taxis chauffeur me the rest of the way?
I took a poll of the smokers standing outside. “Do you think it’s safe to walk to the park to get a cab?” I asked.
“No way. Uh-uh. Don’t do it,” was the general consensus. Sighing, I went back inside and feeling embarrassed, asked one of my male roommates if he’d mind walking me home. I had to wake up at 5:30 the next morning and needed to get home and get some rest.
He was gracious about it and kept insisting that he didn’t mind but I still felt bad about having to ask him. One of the qualities I pride myself most on is my independence. I embrace the whole, ‘woman, man, fish, bicycle’ motto and have always done whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted and never needed any male protection before.
Until now, anyway. Here was an example where being strong and independent wasn’t enough. Hollering “I am woman, here me roar!” certainly wouldn’t have scared away the rapists or robbers. But a six-foot-four male Englishman? Apparently that did the trick.
“I feel like you’re my babysitter,” I whined on our walk back.
My Spanish tutor is also a Tae-Kwon-Do master and in between verb conjugations and discussions about Guatemalan politics, he’s taught me a few of his moves. I now know, for example, how to break someones arm. What good this will do me if I’m ever attacked, is probably next to nil because I only know how to do it if the mugger attacks me from the front.
But it’s a start.
So your friend had to abandon his enjoyable evening and walk you home and then listen to you whine the entire way? Sometimes it sucks to be a man.
I didn’t whine at him the ENTIRE way, only part of it. : ) Plus he needed to go home to get more money anyway, so it wasn’t that big a deal. If it had been, I definitely would have figured out another way home.
Maybe Nicaragua is safer? 😀
I can definitely see how it would be annoying to have to relinquish your independence when you’ve had it/taken it for granted your whole life!
Is it unsafe for Guatemalan women to walk alone at night? What if you were walking with a few other foreign woman would that be ok? I guess I’m unclear about whether it’s unsafe for you mostly because you’re a foreigner or because you’re alone or both?
Both. The fact that I’m a foreigner means that I have a higher chance of getting mugged (because foreigners often carry around more money on them then Guatemalans) but as far as being raped is concerned, I think there’s a risk of that happening here no matter what nationality you are. Women don’t walk around here by themselves after 9 or 10 o’clock at night. A lot of the streets aren’t well-lit and there are quite a few drunk guys wondering around at that time.
Guatemala is fairly safe during the day but at night, it’s a different story.