Can you "behave"?

An interesting topic in our discussions in Germany was around female security when doing humanitarian work, since in several places in Africa rape is used as a war weapon and sometimes humanitarian workers get caught up in the middle. Therefore we debated how a woman should “behave” in such a situation. They say it is best not to fight and there was even the suggestion of offering a condom, since the transmission of HIV is much lower if there is no injury and a condom is used. Well.. I can tell you right now that “behaving” is definitely not an option for me, God forbid something like that ever comes my way. So I started to develop my own strategies and incorporated some other suggestions offered by the group to formulate my own plan.

My first thought was a pocket knife, which could be used to perform a quick castration. But we can not carry weapons and the procedure itself would be bloody and messy, not to mention the risk of losing the knife to the attacker and getting stabbed myself. Ok, no knives then. So somebody suggested a pepper spray! Great idea! I had a patient in emerg once that got pepper sprayed on the face, and I will tell you, that stuff is powerful. You could not get close to him without having a coughing fit, itching throat and general aversion. But still not incapacitating enough… that’s when I thought of a pocket taser! Imagine the effects of one of those is some exposed testicles… effective indeed! So, that’s it, that’s my plan: a pocket taser and some peper spray. Girl power is here! Maybe I should take some martial arts classes too.. any other suggestions?

That being said, since I am going to Columbia I am probably safe from that kind of risk. On the other hand I am at risk for abduction. Great… why am I doing this again?