Our first (and hopefully last) robbery

Yesterday we were talking about how our week had been pretty boring and then, last night, we were robbed…not so boring. We had gone to dinner with one of the other volunteers in our site and were walking home at about 8:15. A group of three high school age boys walked past us and then eventually turned around and started following us. We were joking around that they were probably going to rob us and steal our crappy phones. For some reason Shannon took her phone out of her purse and put it in the waistband of her skirt (just in case) and we continued to walk. We turned a corner and they followed us. At this point we were pretty sure they were planning to rob us and we hurried because we could see a pulperia with a lot of people ahead. The boys saw it too and one ran up and grabbed Shannon’s purse. She of course tried to fight him for it and then he said something to one of his friends who reached into his waistband like he had a weapon. At this point we realized that it was not worth it and Shannon let go of her purse. They then told the other volunteer to give them her purse and they also took the bags with our leftover Chinese food and ran off. We went home and called the Peace Corps and they contacted the police who went out to look for the boys (not very likely that they would find them but we did see them driving around). Luckily Shannon only had five Lempiras (about 30 cents) and her water bottle in her purse (she is really sad about her water bottle and her NRA sticker). The other volunteer was not so lucky and her phone, ID, and debit card were all in her purse along with a couple of dollars. Luckily nobody got hurt and we all laughed about getting robbed by 15-year-olds who stole our Chinese food. Now we will be more careful and only take what we need and not walk down dark streets…it was bound to happen sometime, hopefully this will be the first and last time!