A friend came to me the other day because she had had something of
a traumatic night. She stays with her cousin in a small one room cement house with a corrugated metal roof.
Her cousin is often gone in the evenings, as she enjoys drinking at the local watering
hole and fraternizing with a number of different men. This leaves my friend home alone most evenings until
her cousin returns, if she does.
On this particular night, my friend woke up to a drunken man
pounding on the door. He was one of her cousin's boyfriends, and he showed up
expecting to find her there. He accused my friend of lying to him, claiming
that his girlfriend was inside even though she told him otherwise. He
threatened my friend and continued pounding and beating at the door. Her cousin
didn’t answer the phone despite my friend’s frantic calls to her. No one else
on the compound came to help her.
In the morning light, my friend woke to find her door broken. She
had to phone for help because the door wouldn’t open. It had been beaten in too
hard. She told me she wants to move, but finding another place to live might be hard and expensive.
To date, she hasn't been able to move to a home where she feels safe.
