CR you´re making it hard to love you

It was a day like any other as Stephanie and I made the walk to our Spanish classes.  As we passed through a little neighborhood I noticed a man in his late 20s walking about 5 feet behind us with a broom.  In my time here in Costa Rica I´ve learned to never talk, smile, or acknowledge strangers. Many times men try to get your attention and as long as you keep your head down and keep walking they seem to leave you well enough alone.  Today was a different story, as the man that was behind us threw down his broom and grabbed the bottom part of my backpack, and said, "Give me your bag," in perfect English.  If you know me, it might not surprise you that I was not going to give up without a fight, so I took a swing and hit his face, wishing now that I would´ve went for somewhere a little more sensitive.  He proceeded to yank at my bag and hit my sides, he motioned as if he was stabbing me, and I surrendered my bag.  He did not have a knife and left me largely unscathed physically; emotionally I´m not sure I´ve fully processed it all.  As it always seems with traumatic experiences, it is still so surreal to me.  As he was telling me to give him my bag, I could only think SERIOUSLY?! This isn´t really happening.  It´s the middle of the day, I´m not alone, and we´re in a relatively nice neighborhood.

But here I am sitting with my lovely Tica family, who has hugged, comforted, and loved me in everyway they can.  I´m without my books, backpack, camera, chacos, rainjacket...you get the picture... but I´m ok, I´m loved, and honestly I´m alive.  As soon as the man started making jabs I realized how stupid my decision was to fight back, but still decided to run after him with a broom... what can I say? I don´t give up easy, especially once I realized I wasn´t bleeding!  Oh right, the lesson....yes, material things can always be replaced, security cannot. Despite the incident today I still sit here among my Tica family and I feel safe and humbly realize that this is their life. Yes, you can find crime in the US, but it´s not something I fear everytime I step outside.  "The innocent are stuck behind bars while the criminals run the streets," words of a true Tico, this rings more and more true each day.

Bendiciones para ti,

Hannah