Erik,

I know what you mean, when I was working in Tajikistan one of my female colleagues was attacked, robbed and raped in her second floor apartment with the assailant getting through a tiny bathroom window on the second floor. Most westerners (and there were only a hundred or so outside the embassies) lived in houses with guards - not that you could trust the guards to do anything.

I lived in an apartment with two steel doors and bars every where and when I carried a folding knife and high powered torch with me everywhere. When I entered my apartment I checked every room with the torch before locking the door, similarly the stairwell on the way out and I always sat in the back seat behind the driver in taxis and always carried over $US400 so that if I did get robbed, they'd be happy with what they got and would be less likely to take the risk of kidnapping me.

The strange thing is, even though we don't even have lock on the front door at the farm, you get used to living like this quite quickly.

mike