In a residential area where gunshots are a norm, residents can tell the shot that hit the target and the shot fired in the air. Going about my business in Philippi, Cape Town, South Africa, I was shot after being robbed at gunpoint on two different occasions.
Three minutes after getting off a taxi, I heard gunshots. Everyone in the vicinity started running away; so did I. While running I felt the first bullet hitting me from the back between my shoulder blades on the left, and coming out on my collar bone. The second bullet grazed my neck. It felt like a rubber bullet and is lodged in my ankle. I also have two wounds on my forearm, and I don’t know if they were from the fourth bullet or the second bullet.
The experience left me and my son traumatized, trying to pick up the pieces of our lives and become independent and live our lives fully. And coming to terms with the fact the same community that I serve almost took my life. I pray for the day when guns will no longer be randomly available in our streets.