Pepper spray= fail

Ok so today we woke up to a freaking dog barking and some worker outside yelling.

Normal Belize day....

We tried to figure out how to get to Altun Ha, a Mayan Ruin that was close to Belize City.  We couldn't figure out the bus service and decided that we were just going to hang around the apartment and eat biscuits and gravy!  Sooo Yummy!  

Me and Lauren laid down for a nap and that didn't happen for me because of all the racket outside on a Saturday afternoon!  

So we woke up and I felt fat and wanted to go running, no one felt that way with me. (The thought crossed my mind that I could totally run alone on Princess Margret, the street we take to school everyday, in the day time.  I would never do it, but I really felt that safe.)  So I told Lauren and Whit that we should totally stop by the vendors in BTL Park (directly across from Hummingbird Elementary) for some lunch.  It would get us out of the apartment, get us some exercise, and get us some yummy, cheap food to eat!

So we walk there No problem.  We get some Burritos for $2 and then go sit down at a picnic table by the sea.  Some kid in a purple shirt comes up to us at the table and says, "Can me and two friends come eat lunch with you girls?"  We politely said no, which is something that we have to do everyday around here, so completely normal.   He leaves on his bike and goes and hangs out with his two friends right by the sea probably 100 yards from us.  

We see a homeless man eating from a trashcan.  Lauren gives him her left overs and then we get up to go.  I am carrying a small purse that i bought specifically for Belize, small and plain black.  

We notice these guys are behind us all three on their bikes.  We still don't think anything of it because they are just riding at a safe distance and we are on a busy street in broad daylight.  For some reason this time, I was not nervous at all.  Whitney said she had a bad feeling and wanted to call our taxi driver.  We decided not to because it usually takes him 10 minutes to get us and we were less than 5 minutes from our apartment.  

So the bikers disappear, Wheeww we were safe.  2 minutes later they come off right next to us , but on the opposite side of the street.  We are getting closer to our street thinking, "Ok we are almost there. This street is busy and so is ours, we are ok."  Whit says that she has put her wallet in her bra.  So i think to do the same.  I take my wallet from my purse and slip it under my shirt.  I was going to do the same with my camera, but it is kind of big.  So I thought, "Elle you are being too much of a scaredy cat.  Get real what's really going to happen?"

Well one biker ditches off down a side street laughing like the joker from Batman.  That's when I started to worry.  I pulled up my landlords number on our Belize cellphone and had my hand on call and Lauren had her pepper spray out.  One of the two bikers left does a U-turn and is heading our way on our side of the street.  I really thought they were just trying to scare us or something and that he was going to just ride by, until he dropped his bike.  

Things get kinda blurry for me from there.  I see him lift up his shirt and he has a gun tucked in his jeans.  I see him reach for Lauren's stuff and he says, "Give me everything you have!" several times in a mumbled voice.  She is struggling with him and I can see this because I am directly behind her.  She is trying to get her pepper spray to work, which is just spewing all over her hands rather than in the bad guys faces.  I am repeating, " Lauren give him your stuff." over and over again.  She finally does and at this time I am still holding my purse.  

He sees me with the phone in my hand that I had called my landlord on and he says give me that and snatches is.  He also says, "Give me your purse." and I hand him my water bottle because I am in such shock.  He bats that away and goes for my purse.  I am sure I looked like a 4 year old getting her shirt changed, because he took my purse off of me while I stood there with my hands up.  

They rode off down a side street and we just started screaming at cars driving by saying."We got robbed please help!!"  and one man stopped and gave us the phone and said it was calling the police.  I was hysteric and couldn't even talk.  I was crying and looking around trying to tell them where we were and there are no street signs so all I knew was that I was on Princess Margret.  

A neighbor let us walk over to her house and sit down and talk to the police there and then my Landlords wife, a freaking godsent, came and picked us up and took us to the police station to give our statements.  

Belize police= big waste of my time

We were there for 2 hours.  The purple shirt guy was no longer wearing a purple shirt.  Our stuff was already on the black market somewhere and our phone already had some weird woman answering it.  

Needless to say we will never get that stuff back, but we have our lives. 

Our landlord and his wife made us dinner and let us drink a corona while we were there to calm our nerves.  Our locks on the apartment have been changed and everything is safe.

It is so sad that one event like this can ruin our whole experience.  I wanted so bad to have such a great experience like this and some idiots who are too lazy to get a job can ruin all of that so fast!

So needless to say I will be back in GA tomorrow evening.  I plan to hang out with Evan and my fam whom I've missed terribly!  So since I will not be student teaching till next semester, I will have to find a job for now :( 

ughhh what a day