Day 316

Thursday March 6, 2014

Today a boda man attempted to rob me. Lucky for me he was unsuccessful since all my money and phone and everything was inside my bag.

I was walking to the bus. It was quarter to seven.

There was a boda guy driving on the sidewalk. I kept thinking, why is he doing that, but at the same time it wasn't my first time witnessing a boda doing just what they wanted to do, so I kept walking.

I had my backpack on and my messenger bag across me, both too heavy to do more than a medium paced walk.

So I'm walking and just as the boda man passes me, he reaches out his arm and clutches my messenger bag with a grip from hell while simultaneously speeding up.

All I could do was scream, "You mother..." and I trailed off. Shaken. I don't even think I tried to grab my bag. I got lucky the strap didn't just snap as I know he was expecting.

In that moment though, I felt a real vulnerability that I have never felt before. I felt a helplessness that I am not accustomed to and I wanted to land on my knees and cry right there in the streets.

The thing that disturbed me most was not the boda man and the intensity and seeming hatred and lack of regard I felt that he had for me, but that there was a security guard sitting just feet away, watching and laughing at the whole scene, not trying to help me, but just observing. There was another man who was coming the same direction as the boda man had who did the same. Just sneered at me in a mocking manner.

That was difficult to swallow.

So I just kept moving. Checked to make sure I didn't lose anything and walked to my bus.

I have been on edge since. Throughout that bus ride I kept seeing the boda man coming towards me and feeling the yank around my neck and the accelerated speed of the motorcycle.

I understand why robberies are now so traumatizing. It's funny that unless you are that person, a person who has been victimized or a certain group of people, you don't understand them unless you are them.

That's how I feel with this legislation. People can be as outraged as they want and hurt as they would like to be, but unless they are LGBT, I feel like it doesn't hit the same.

How could it?