Saved by a Stranger in Cape Town

I lived with a host family for nearly 6 months in Cape Town, South Africa. While there, I never felt unsafe in our neighborhood. We didn’t live in the wealthiest of neighborhoods, but we lived in an area where it was safe for me to walk around in. Every day I commuted to school and often took the train ten stops. The walk from home to the train was approximately 10 min, that is, if I didn’t take a wrong turn which I tended to do in my dazed strolling.

One day I was careless and left my computer sticking out of my satchel. I know, it was the number one rule my host mom had told me. Keep your expensive belongings hidden or, more importantly, don’t carry them at all. In my haste to catch the train from the coffee shop I frequently inhabited, I didn’t pack my bag very well and left my Macbook sticking out. Two men followed me from the station.

I was cool and collected as I walked. I knew they were following me on the other side of the street. I occasionally glanced at them through my peripheral vision, noting how they whispered to one another glancing at me. I prepared myself for a mugging. Considering how much cash I had in my wallet and what else I could give them in exchange for my safety, my heart began to pound.

“Welp, this is going to happen,” I thought to myself. I thought about all the lost pictures on my computer, articles, notes, and personal information. Without realizing it my pace began to quicken and the two men crossed the street towards me while picking up speed themselves. My fists clenched. I held my breath.

Suddenly, a Suburban came speeding to a stop beside me, nearly running the men over but blocking them from me. A woman rolled down the window, and in a sweet but stern voice said, “Get in.”

I weighed my options: get in a stranger’s vehicle or get mugged by the two men she had blocked. I looked in her backseat and saw a baby in a car seat. Babies have a strange way of making you feel comforted and safe. The woman’s eyes implored me. I made up my mind. Opening the door I quickly got in as she drove off.

We sat in silence as she obviously drove in circles. “What were you thinking?!” she asked. “Anyone could have spotted that Macbook! You’re not from around here are you?” As soon as I spoke my accent gave me away — a foolish American girl. She asked where I lived and told me she’d take me there after making a few more laps in the neighborhood to make sure they weren’t following us.

The baby laughed and reached for me. The woman sighed and looked at me through the rear view mirror. I saw tears. I had scared her. A stranger in this world, she put her life and her’s baby’s life in harms way to save me. What if they had pulled out a weapon? What if they broke her window? As she dropped me off, she made me promise I’d be more careful.

I wasn’t more careful in Cape Town because of this experience, but instead, I was a little more careful in all my journeys. I understand I am a solo female, and perhaps I became more aware of this after being saved by the stranger. But I was not fearful of being in the city I had grown to love after this, because I realized that it could have happened in most places.

I did learn to pack my belongings more properly, but I didn’t stop taking the train or traveling alone. Cape Town is a stunning city meant to be explored and breathed in — something that is impossible if you are weary of danger each day. You have to go unafraid into this world in order to take in the places you visit while traveling — and this, more than anything reminded me of that.