Perception of safety is a funny thing.

I was down in Panama a few years ago,couple of weeks post invasion, working as a photographer. My traveling companions and I were doing a tour around Panama City, talking to residents, seeing the damages up close etc.

At one point, we came across a group of folks who were basically living on the sidewalk of an apt building, the building itself had been shelled so badly it was no longer safe to be in. Huge holes in the walls, no utilities. We stopped and spoke to these folks for a while, heard their stories, I took some photographs. When we got ready to leave, they all asked us where we were going, when we told them our next destination, they implored us to not go there, it wasn't safe for anyone to go to that part of town they claimed. So we asked about going back the way we'd come, no, no, don't do that either, it's not safe there either. Apparently the only safe place for 3 American journalists to be was right there with them.

I'm still struck by how those folks kept up their own sense of what safety means, to them it meant staying in the shadow of their former homes, to us it meant not knowing where the unsafe places for us to be were in advance. We left them there, made our way to the "unsafe" parts of the city and back to our hotel that night unscathed.

It's a funny thing, perception.

JohnE