The Hamburglars.

So my roommate and I got mugged a couple blocks away from home last night. They stole our hamburgers.

We had come home from a fantastic night out at a local Reggae bar that played outdoor live music and it was around 1:30 a.m. when we decided to hit up the 24 hour prostitute hang-out/all night food club a few blocks away from our residence. We even endured the hour long wait with plenty of curious men and women coming up to talk to the two very sleepy white women so that we could go home and eat an overpriced, juicy western-style hamburger with cheese. As we rounded the last corner, we both realized that two men in their 20's had come out of nowhere behind us and were whispering to each other. We tried to calmly walk to a house a few feet away where other volunteers lived. The two men passed us up as we pretended to unlock the gate. Unfortunately for us, the gate was tied securely and we couldn't get in.

We hid behind a broken down van in the dark alley trying to decide whether or not to go on, finally we chose to keep moving (our house was just around the next corner). That's when the two guys stepped out of the shadows and walked directly toward us and grabbed our arms. They got my roommate first and we both didn't try to struggle and gave them the bag we had with food in it very calmly. We were pretty pissed off and told them off angrily after they walked away.

The next morning I realized we had been attacked by "hamburglars," ironically enough.

Ghana is a relatively safe place by African standards for foreigners, but I was being careless and was VERY fortunate that nothing more happened. Overall, it wasn't very frightening, but my roommate and I were both a little unnerved by how completely out of our control a situation can become. We had no choice but to give them what they wanted, and it was that fact that made the whole situation very unsettling. Also, that night in about the same location our two friends were walking home from our house and got attacked and mugged. One got a cut on her face and a bloody nose and

both their purses were stolen so we are all being much more careful around Accra.

A Reggae band plays live at Bywells, one of our last stops before heading home Thursday night.