A lot of people have wished me safe travels or traveling mercies on this trip. And I'm very grateful for the warm thoughts and timely prayers. It seems like sometimes it's just automatic to say this to someone without giving it deep thought. And it's also automatic for us to just think things will be safe...until they're not. While we were in Colombia, in the Cartagena bus station waiting for our bus to Medellin, Megan's backpack was stolen. We didn't notice when it happened, but we have a good idea who took it. None of us realized it was gone until Megan rejoined the group and said "Hey guys, where's my backpack". I immediately thought this wasn't going to end well. It was just a feeling. The next half hour, well it was crazy. We all worried, stressed, and felt violated and frustrated. How could this happen? Megan cried- I would too if I lost my laptop, ipad, some money and other things that I needed.
We searched frantically for the backpack and the guys we thought may have taken it. Tiffany literally went on every bus in the station looking for the guys. Lula looked around the waiting area. I talked with the police in Spanish, try to tell them what happened and what we knew and asking them what they could do. Honestly the police weren't that helpful. They said the looked on the video, but didn't see anything. I don't think they cared too much that some American tourist's backpack was stolen. A random man starting yelling at the police and they left us to talk to him. Later, just before we got on the bus, I saw two policeman struggling to lead that man away in handcuffs. Clearly, the police felt their attention was needed elsewhere.
When we got on the bus all of us were very somber. We weren't sure what to do to make Megan feel better, at this moment she was unconsolable. I felt guilty for being glad that my backpack wasn't stolen, like I was being a bad friend by being secretly happy to still have my things. Originally we had planned to make this bus ride fun. We downloaded movies & music to our ipads. We bought snacks. We made jokes about how long the bus ride would be and the things we would do to entertain ourselves. And in a moment that all changed. We were frightened, scared and solemn. The good vibes and adventurous spirit of our trip were all gone. We were no longer the Traveling Tarheels, invincible and determined to make everything fun. We were quiet and sad. For once we didn't know what to do. We were brought back to reality that bad things happen and that they could happen to us. That we could be targets for people with bad intentions. Safe travels & traveling mercies were no longer automatic assumptions. They were two things that we no longer had and we missed them terribly.
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