A scary thing that really happens

Upon occasion I like to watch the National Geographic Channel, its rather informative and sometimes quite interesting. Tonight there was a show on called Locked Up Abroad, it was about a lady who traveled from England to Ecuador to try to help a friend who was in Ecuador get his visa and all his paper work straight to go back to England and try to work things out with his wife. At least it was something to that effect. So it turned out the guy made up this story about wanting to go back to England and took a bag apart and filled the lining with drugs and when the lady went to get on her plane to go back home she got charged with drug trafficking and possession. That's just to sum up the hour long story I just watched about it.

It seems that you hear about these things happening to single women traveling to foreign countries from time to time. Maybe some of them know whats going on, but most of the time these women claim to have no idea what is happening to them when they are taken in by the police. After watching Brokedown Palace and shows like Locked up Abroad or even hearing about it on the news, its something I remember every time I travel to a foreign country. Of course I'm very cautious of not letting my luggage out of my site. But the story of the girl who went from Australia to Bali to go surfing who claimed the luggage handlers had put the drugs in her bag makes it even a scarier thought. Those are people you should be able to trust with your bags, not people you should worry about tampering with them.

So as a single female who travels to foreign countries alone, as I watch these shows I think what if something like that ever happened to me. The way these women are treated in countries where at times they can't even speak the language, it is just a terrifying thought to try to even fathom what they go through and how strong they have to be. I don't know that I could be as strong as they are, I mean I guess if you are put in the situation you just have to deal with it and rely on a strength much bigger than yourself. But spending years and years locked up in a jail in a country that's not your own, that doesn't speak your language, that you aren't familiar with the laws its just scary, I hope and pray no one I know would ever have to endure that.