pain

Saturday afternoon at a church downtown that has many, many International School connections, the praise team was practicing for Sunday morning worship. One of the team members ran out to move his car because looters were going through the street ahead of a protest that was marching. A few men in motorcycles drove ahead of the march, and, seeing this man moving his car, pulled out a gun. He ran for cover in the church door, but was hit by a bullet as his family looked on. His family included his 6-year-old daughter who is my class. She saw the whole thing. She saw her dad bleed to death on the church steps.

The death was random; the shooters declared that he was a Micheletti supporter (there was no way they could have known). Later, the same shooters came back to take pictures of him and try to pass it off as the police killing a Mel supporter. This has unfortunately spread through the media as well, thus making this man's already tragic death an even bigger tragedy. Now he has been turned into a martyr for a cause he did not support.

But tomorrow I return to a class of bright-eyed 6-year-olds with the job of explaining that Marcela's dad is with Jesus and won't be coming back. But I don't want them to know about the world they're living in right now.

impact of the coup

I've been really thinking lately how the poverty here in Honduras must color this coup and this routine of curfew and rioting for so many people. A very large percentage of Honduras is poor; this is something that I've known for a very long time. Yet, what does it mean to be curfewed if you're homeless? How do you make your living if you're a taxi driver, barely making enough money, who has to completely stop working for several days and then risk danger driving? We have vendors who walk or ride motorcycles through our neighborhoods selling tortillas and fruit, and they had completely stopped until about yesterday. Not hearing them shout the names of the items they sell made a strange silence for the past few days. They say that for each day that Honduras is under a daytime curfew, (there were two last week), the economy loses US$50 million. That is an extreme hit to such a poor country, especially now that the US has pulled out almost all of its monetary aid. I read somewhere that Micheletti (the interim president) thinks that this country could survive 6 months on the food that it has, but that just isn't realistic at all; one day during the curfew, the stores were completely emptied out by Honduran shoppers. Each time there is a curfew, all of the borders close, not allowing any importation of food.

We have vigilantes who stand guard in our (and in most middle class) neighborhoods. They, like so many people in Honduras, are underpaid. But recently, I have realized just how dangerous their job is. The top story yesterday in one of the Honduran news websites was that people have been donating food to guards, especially those in the military. I can't imagine that they have been able to get home much over the past few days. But even if they had, I love that the people are showing their gratitude in that way.

The rich are suffering, now, as well, but in very different ways. International School has many families who are very well off, and with money comes danger. Many children get threats on their lives from people wanting their parents' money. There are threats of kidnappings; there were several actual kidnappings at the end of last year, one of which ended in the child's death. Talking with my teacher friends, there are a significant number of students preparing to leave the country, some of them due to threats of kidnapping and violence. I cannot imagine this life, either.

It's hard for everyone in Honduras right now, and I'm realizing how extremely good I have it.

Watch this video.

Please continue to pray for Honduras.

worse than black friday.

as of this moment, we've been under curfew here in tegucigalpa for roughly 52 hours. most of this time has been passed at the house of some other north american teachers, which proved to be a lesson in humility, because we didn't have so much that we needed. we had some very gracious hosts, though, and now we're finally back in our house!! ever since monday at about 4, we haven't been allowed to leave, by orders of the police.

until today!

this morning we got an email saying that the curfew that was supposed to go through the day today would be lifted from 10-5 so that people could go shopping and get food. our school sent a bus to pick us all up, and we headed to the grocery store to stock up on essentials. i went more for the outing than for actual things, as i have plenty.

it was absolute panic-mode in the city. many of us commented that it felt like the y2k scare. everyone was out on the road; a trip that would have taken about 10 minutes any other day took over an hour. cars were backed up for miles waiting to get into gas stations. when we got to the store, people were stocking up on food like you wouldn't believe. people pushed 2 carts completely overflowing through the aisles. and there were so many people! i don't know that i had ever seen so many people in one store before. the checkout line wrapped entirely around the store, and was moving nowhere. in roughly 1 hour, we had moved 4 feet forward thanks to some type of sketchy merging going on further up. after about 3 hours of waiting in line, myself and three others decided to just give up and go out for lunch across the street. it ended up being a very good move.

throughout tegucigalpa, there was news of looting in supermarkets, of robberies in electronic stores overnight, and more. the news showed grocery stores that had been completely gutted and people fighting over food on the shelves. yet i'm not sure why the panic is so intense. even though the crisis isn't resolved, today showed just how unstable this situation is.

well, we are back in our house, which feels great. about 6:30 tonight we got the word that school tomorrow would be canceled again, but then at 8:30 we got a follow up email saying that administration had changed its mind. awesome. so we're back on. but those two hours had been enough for me to get completely out of any school-type zone i would have been in. tomorrow will only be a half day for students (full for teachers), but hopefully it's enough to again start to get into the groove.

mel's back

Today was the first day back to school since the swine flu vacation of 2009. And what do you know?! School tomorrow is cancelled, as well. Great. If given the choice, I'd love to spread my days off out rather than have sooo many in a row. These little first graders need to do some learning.

Today was a significant day for Honduras. During school, we got word that Mel Zelaya had re-entered the country by sneaking into Tegucigalpa. We weren't sure if this was true; there were rumors that it was a rumor. There were some parents that came to pick up their kids from school reportedly due to concerns over busses having trouble passing through later in the day.

When we got home from school, we heard that Mel was indeed back. The Brazilian embassy let Mel in, and he's been there ever since. His whereabouts for the past few months have been very questionable, and no one has ever really seemed to know where he has been. Graffiti around the city shows support for or against Mel, and getting into any political discussion can be risky, as passionate supporters of both sides are everywhere. Within International School, we have been instructed to never talk politics, as many of our students are children of politicos, and their lives are very much influenced by who is--or isn't--in power.

Anyway, when we got home, we headed to the store in order to avoid being out around dark. After a bit of excitement on the way, we ended up back at a friend's house for the evening, where we are right now. We relocated due in part to a curfew that is in place until 6pm tomorrow. We are not allowed to leave, as if in a lockdown. The streets aren't safe due to Mel being downtown, as the police are all down there rather than throughout the city where they should be. Cars could be ticketed just for driving, and being out on the streets is dangerous. We don't have school tomorrow, and from what I've heard, school in the near future is not completely certain anyway, especially until something happens with Zelaya.

I have found that it is so hard to get an unbiased view of what is going on, as it is with any government. I realize as the elections get nearer, there could be more conflict within a couple of months until the new president is sworn in. Hopefully things do not stay this tense; I would love life to get a bit more normal. :)

roatan

yesterday we got back from roatan. it was a great trip, and a fabulous way to relax for a few days. the island was gorgeous, and had a definite caribbean island feel, even though it's officially a part of honduras. the official language was english, which made it seem very much like jamaica.

good story. to get to roatan, you must either take a ferry or a plane. we took the ferry. on the way to roatan, we were given dramamine with our tickets. this seemed a bit strange, but nice. it was nice that they were helping us out like htat. turned out to be the worst 2 hours on a boat that i've ever spent. kendra and i sat on the top deck, figuring that it'd be best to get fresh air. it probably was. but it was almost impossible to walk around becuase the boat was moving so much. there were a few times when waves crashed onto the deck (we were on the 2nd level... that's a lot of water). and as we were on the ride, there were crew members handing out barf bags. let's just say many people needed them. it was a ridiculous ride. but worth it! and after such a terrible ride, i was expecting something similar yesterday morning at 7. but it was muuuuuch better, and i wished i hadn't even taken the dramamine.

roatan was very very hot and extremely humid. being back in tegucigalpa, i'm already very relieved at the much cooler weather, even though it's roughly 80 here. we snorkeled, relaxed on the beach, and just had a good time being on vacation. now that i'm back in tegucigalpa, it's time to get some work done for school, which starts back up on monday. until then, i'll just keep enjoying my very long weekend.

i have some pictures published here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2082326&id=15300570&l=924ac1f79e

Vacation

With my 11-day weekend underway, I'm finding that I enjoy the relaxation. No surprises there. :) Tomorrow we're off to Roatan with the group, and then a few of us are going to Utila before heading back to Tegucigalpa. Roatan and Utila are 2 of Honduras' Bay Islands in the Caribbean, surrounded by the 2nd largest coral reef in the world. Should be pretty nice.

Here are some pictures that I published to Facebook. Expect more from the little Caribbean paradise I'm about to visit. I should be back from vacation Thursday or Friday. Happy Honduran Independence weekend!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=32761619&l=a72ac8bef1&id=15300570

Swine flu!

It happened! 11 days without school! We do have to make them up, but due to the long weekend already in the works, we're only missing 4 days of school-school that we'll have to make up. I'm excited about this, but I"m also a little worried about having to start over with all of what I have established. I think there'll be a lot of progress lost. But on the bright side, we're only missing a week and a half of time, so it could be worse. And I'm very excited about the opportunity to read up on things I could be doing differently, change some things, and then go back all caught up and ready to go. And to travel.

gripe porcina.

So there's this thing here that's apparently all the rage. It's sweeping the school, even keeping kids from coming to school. Unfortunately, this thing is the swine flu. I've been to some meetings about it, gotten a large bottle of hand sanitizer, and instructed to send any kid with flu like symptoms to the doctor immediately... which is unfortunately quite a few. Yesterday 9 of my kids were missing, and over half of the 9th grade class has been out of school. With swine flu comes a mandatory 7 days of school missed. If a school has a reported case, the school has to be closed for 10 days. Word on the street is that there are cases at IST, but since these families are from upper classes, they are taking their kids to private clinics rather than public hospitals. They say that private clinics don't have to report cases to the Ministry of Health, but I'm not sure that that's a fact.

The other Christian bilingual school in Tegus has closed for the 2 weeks, and we all kind of know that there is swine flu at IST. There was a meeting today for the high school saying that the Health Department is coming to the school tonight to assess, but there's a good chance that tomorrow will be the last day of school. Now, we're not sure if this applies to elementary or if it's just high school, but we think that there's a few cases here in elementary, too.

I'll let you know what happens! If you feel comfortable, say a little prayer for swine flu... although I think that losing 2 weeks of school would make me have to start over completely with these little 6 year olds. In fact, I'm sure it would. Aaaaand, this is Honduras... :)

my kiddos

i've taken better photos in my life, but this'll give you a start on some of my little kiddos. :) these are from the first day of school, and they were all confused and only speaking in spanish and not having any of my english... i'm not sure they knew what was going on. they don't look this confused all of the time. i'm going to take my camera back to school this week and get better pictures with all 22 of them, and also of my classroom.