Ladrao....In English The Thief !

Antonio Rapinga Exercise Park Maputo Mozambique

Today we saw something we had heard about but never seen.  thought I should write about it before I forget.
We were down at our running park this morning  as usual (park name Antonio Rapinga Exercise Park)when one of the nice men who is a regular at the park told me some youth were walking around our truck and some other cars and that I needed to move our truck and quit parking where we park.
So I told dad and he thought well we will move it next time. So the man talked to me again and told me that the youth from the troubled youth place around there are always looking to steal mirrors or whatever they can get off your car. I told him we have our license plate # etched in our mirror and lights and etc. Then the man said they wont take them then but you should not park there.
Well the next lap around the park  I noticed a group of grown men chasing those 2 young men. I guess the made another sweep around the cars and tried to get something off of someonelses car parked in the vacinity. They had come from over by our truck again running and the boys were fast but these men some of them near our age were fast also. One boy got away but the other boy did not. Too bad for him. He just got the physical beating of his life by all of the men. Some of those older men had a good round house kick to the kids head .Dad and I just stood there and watched from a good distance as all the men headed over there and just beat and kicked this boy until he couldn't get up.We did not know what to do. You always think you would try to save the poor person...Not in this situation. One of the Grey uniform police men (there are many colored uniform police and you have to know them as this distinguishes their authority. The grey really are thugs themselves and stop you when you are driving just for money usually.)came up and told them to leave him alone but they gave him some good kicks first and then the kid just got up and took off. You see the people get so tired of there being no laws that they take the law into their own hands. When you call a police man they dont do anything and the grey uniforms are the friends of the thieves or Ladraos and just turn their backs. The communitygets so frustrated that They usually beat a Ladrao to death. Thank goodness not this time because we would have had to step over him to get into our truck to come home (jk). Afterwards the man in the nice sweat outfit told dad 'I told you to move your truck . they will come back and you need to not park there.' It was a place with some bushes and you cant see your car really well but we were watching it. We decided to heed the council. We also could see the man was worried for the cars and for the youth. If they have the tempration they will steal it.
Anyway it was an interesting begining to our day. We are so thankful for the laws that govern our country and our soldiers and policemen. They really deserve a big thank you and some cookies. So today go thank a police officer or a Soldier. Shauna could hug one.