They managed to open the upper window that didnt have any bars while Nicole, frozen with fear not sure whether to scream or stay quiet, clutched at her bedding. MZUNGU! MZUNGU! they yelled, shining a flashlight in her face. The guard who had been watching them the whole time shot a single round, another shot was fired in reatlliation as the group dispersed heading back through the hole in the fence. The guard is quite sure he shot one of the robbers, but since he ran off, we presume he survived.

Nicole grabbed her phone and called David, he told her to stay in her room and not go anywhere. Meanwhile, Rachel, one of the dadas, only 16, started running through the house to try and open the locked doors. Christian, the families middle son caught her in time and the entire household retreated to their bedrooms and locked their doors. After calling the police, who never responded, everyone remained in the house, not wanting the armed guard to mistaken someone for a thief.

As we slept soundly in our beds, the rest of the household paced inside, aside from Will, whose pragmatism said he had one of two options, stay awake and worry or sleep and figure it out in the morning…he opted for the latter.

We learned that morning that the guard could not see the assailants in the dark and initially thought it was the two of us since we have been known to come home late and would have shot them sooner if he had known. I guess you could say our few late nights at the bar saved the lives of the thieves, or endangered the life of our fellow volunteer, depending on how you look at it.

Being scheduled to leave that afternoon I don’t think the enormity of what transpired hit us fully. One of the guard dogs, pregnant with pups had gone into labor, we’re told most probably due to the shock of the gunfire.  Two of her puppies were stillborn.  The other guard dogs are missing and presumed to have been taken.

We found ourselves on yet another flight in disbelief and just a bit thankful that we wouldn’t be fully acquainted with the evening’s aftermath.