Real Scenarios from ND Students Abroad
The following scenarios are actual experiences Notre Dame students have experienced while abroad. These scenarios are provided in order to help you think about ways to keep yourself safe while visiting other countries. Many times students believe it won’t happen to them hopefully this will help you think of precautionary planning so it doesn’t happen to you.
1. You are alone waiting for a taxi in a busy area. It is getting dark and there are crowds of people. You are approached by a man who initiates a conversation and eventually asks for your contact information. What do you do? UGANDA
Consider: how do your reactions differ in this situation because you are in a culturally very different environment; crowds usually provide a sense of security – do they not in this situation; are you hyper-sensitive; does this mean you are less or more vulnerable; planning your evening activities to include at least one companion; use of a cell phone; etc.
2. You have wanted for years to have a small gecko tattooed on the nape of your neck. As luck would have it, there is a tiny place advertising good prices on tattoos and body piercing in a side street near the university. You get the gecko tattoo. Now you can not stop worrying about those needles and those wiping cloths. What can you do? What could you have done? PUEBLA
Consider: autoclaves, disposable parts, the handling of non-disposable fixtures (not the needles, but the tools, the surfaces, etc), the fact that anyone can hang anything they want on the wall, including “authentic” certificates, the 10-20 year silent incubation period for Hep C (no immunization, no cure), etc.
3. You were with a few friends in Dublin center in the middle of the afternoon when a kid on a bike rode by and swiped your mobile phone from your hands. What did you do? What could you have done?
(Discontinued service, prank call to boyfriend) DUBLIN
Consider: the issue of invading your address book and getting all sorts of information about you and your friends and relations. Were you able to de-activate the chip entirely, or were you only able to discontinue the phone service?
Consider: many students feel that their cell phones are a measure of safety. The one student whose scenario you referred to (also from the Dublin program) was very shaken by the robbery of her cell because it erased a sense of security she had had with it in hand.
Consider: talking on the cell phone while not being aware of your surroundings is not a good idea. The feeling is that being connected by cell phone is all the security you need. Talking on a cell phone during a threatening situation can be very important if: you are keenly aware of what is going on around you and not prevented from hearing well, and: you know where you are at all times, so as to be able to call for assistance and give someone on the other end your location, etc. However, talking on a cell phone can contribute to your vulnerability if you are focused so completely on your conversation that you do not see or hear what is going on around you.
4. You were walking home after meeting some friends in the late evening. It is dark, and, as usual in this city, the shutters are closed tight and the streets are empty. Can you tell us what happened to each of you? ANGERS
Consider: the precautions you had each taken already, walking home most of the way with a friend, the whistle; even with precautions, dangers are very real; sharing of information among women students, including which homes would welcome having a friend stay over; always plan ahead if you will be out late; late can be11pm just as easily as 3am on a street where the shutters are closed and pedestrians are absent; taxis are an option, but ask the driver to wait until you have entered your home and closed the door behind you; the role of whistles, pocket alarms, pepper spray, cell phones (to keep in touch with a friend, so as to let someone know of your whereabouts, or to contact emergency services), of local police, etc.
5. You were on your way home in a taxi. You had dropped your friend off first so you were left alone in the cab. The cab driver started talking to you, and then became more suggestive in his language. Can you tell us what happened, what you did, and what you could have done? PUEBLA
In Katie’s email: I would have not driven alone, but if I had to drive alone in a cab I recommend always being on your cell (or at least pretending to talk on your cell) In my experience cabbies will leave you alone if you are on the phone and also I could have called someone and said in Spanish what was happening and that I expected to arrive at my destination soon- so that the cabbie would know I was connected to someone and someone was waiting for me.
Consider: the notion that a taxi is considered the “safe” alternative; effective use of cell phone; plan ahead for late evenings, stay together in twos or more for the duration, etc.
6. You’re studying abroad in Rome at an American University with other study abroad students from different universities in the US. You go out one night with your close friends who are all from different schools to an American bar downtown. Your best guy friend from an East Coast school is very drunk and you are also buzzed. You’ve had a crush on him since orientation. He asks you to follow him outside to get some air. You walk with him down a dark narrow alley and he tries to force himself on you. No one inside the bar knows you two have left and he’s a lot bigger than you. What do you do? ROME
Consider: in addition to dealing with misuse of alcohol (quantity, availability, alcohol content) and the separation of the student from the larger group of friends she came with, it also touches on the possible suspension of normal reactions to a situation because the context itself is exotic (romantic Roma, different expectations for own behavior: I can do different things here because the place is different), provides a degree of anonymity (no one here knows me/us), and so on
7. Towards the end of the semester, I was in a bar with a group of friends. We had been going there all semester and the doormen and the bartenders got to know us pretty well and we enjoyed chatting with them. One of the doormen (bouncers), was quite fond of one of the girls, Kristy, (not her real name) and we teased her about him all the time. This night we were getting ready to leave and he asked Kristy to stay and hang out with him and said that he would drop her off later. We had all been drinking, but this still didn’t seem like the best idea. However, she said yes, and, after all she was a big girl, if she wanted to go hang out with him, who were we to stop her? We talked about her and worried about her all the way home. I didn’t sleep at all that night until she got home. She was totally drunk when she got back, but seemed fine. However, when I talked to her the next day, she told me that he had raped her in the car and that he didn’t use protection. DUBLIN
She didn’t press charges, but needless to say, we didn’t go into that bar again. We found the health clinic on campus and they tested her for various STDs, all of which thankfully came back negative.
Consider: many bends in the story where a different, better choice could have been made, by your friend, by her friends, around not leaving a friend behind with or without alcohol being involved, around listening to the feeling of intense worry for your friend, around alcohol, around drinking in such a way (varying alcohol contents, guarding your glass) that decision-making is gravely impaired (accepting a ride alone in a car, for example, when drunk); seeking help for your friend at the on-campus clinic and the STD testing: the incubation period for HIV is anywhere from 2 weeks to three months, and from HIV infection to full blown AIDS anywhere from 2 months to 20 years (10 years on average) – morning-after blood testing cannot get at this; resources for coping with sexual assault (friend’s emotional state?)