Today was an experience. I'm not sure how else to put it. Last night we had a going away party for The River Church. It was a nice get together at a local home. We made plans to stay together after church today and leave for Utila tomorrow, very early in the morning in order to avoid any possible political/military problems. As we tried to leave the party Jose realized that his tire was completely flat. The girls were crying and exhausted. We popped off the tire in the dark, dropped the girls off at home and went to the same tire place we just visited a week or so ago, to repair the tire. Since we didn't have the metal interior ring we couldn't buy a whole new tire. Jose said that would have to wait until morning after church.
I got home and washed all of my clothes, then woke up at 5:30 am to finish and get them dry before church. All of my clothes were hanging on the clothes line and I was reading in my bed when Karina's phone rang next to my head. She woke to answer it. She only talked on the phone for a minute, then jumped out of bed and headed for Karla and Jose's room saying something in Spanish and putting her wrists together as though she were in hand cuffs. I thought maybe one of her friends had been arrested and needed help so I kept reading. Then she came back and said that there is no electricity and no water. I said there was an hour ago. That's when she explained that the president had been taken from his home this morning by military force. By this point it was about 7 am.
I said to Jose, we have very little water, no batteries and we still need a tire for your car. Plus we hadn't had time to shop for food this week. He said let's hurry up and do all of that stuff before church because we don't know what might happen after church. I asked should I wear my church clothes or clothes I can run fast in? He said running clothes. We left the girls with Karina and got out of the house as quickly as we could, thinking the earlier we get back home, the safer we would be. On our way out the door we got a call from Jairo saying church was cancelled.
The gas tank was on empty so we stopped and got gas as soon as we found an open gas station. Later the lines for gas were way out into the street. We saw several spots (I'm guessing where the voting poles would have been) where there were paper fliers or ballots (not sure which) strewn all over the streets. After getting gas it was 7:45. While we got a new tire I noticed there was more traffic on the streets. We saw a helicopter and a military plane flew low and fast overhead.
Our timing was great - we got to the store soon after it opened at 8 am. We packed the cart with everything we could think of - ice, batteries, and lots of food. (We failed to think about the fact that both the stove and the microwave run on electricity.) By the time we were ready to check out it was really hard to find the end of the cash register line because the lines for each cashier twisted into the aisles. People who were still trying to shop couldn't use the front aisles of the store. There was a lot of tension in the air - people were starting to freak out. They were talking about the military closing the streets. An announcement came overhead saying to please be patient in line, but please help the baggers to bag your groceries as quickly as you can. The shelves were full of food and workers were restocking, packing more food tightly onto the shelves.
At one point it was nice to be a gringa. Jose had gotten 3 bags of ice, but I thought we needed more. (Turns out we didn't.) Anyway he said it was impossible to get back to the area with the ice because the aisles were all blocked with people waiting in line for the cash registers. I thought back to my days of being a cocktail server in crowded bars - I knew I could make it through this crowd easily, especially since I was not carrying a tray of drinks. So I headed back toward where he said the ice was. There was no ice "in front of the juice" as he had said so I asked a guy who was stocking the shelves where the ice was. Not only did he lead me to the ice, he asked how many bags I wanted, then grabbed them and proceeded to carry them to the exact register where we had been standing in line for the past 15 minutes. I was chasing after him as he pushed through the crowd, but people let him through because he had a store uniform. I tried to tell him where to take the ice, but before I could catch up with him to say anything he had already dropped off the ice at the correct cash register and told the cashier it was for me. Later he was the one who helped bag our groceries and take them to the car so I gave him a big tip.
As we drove home there were many, many police lining the sides of the road. Jose and Karla saw a lot of military men bearing their weapons around the president's residence. I missed it because I didn't know where to look.
We got home safe, put all of the groceries away and I went back to bed since there was nothing else to do. When I woke up the lights were on and they were having a picnic lunch in the back yard. We spent the afternoon/evening watching the news until we couldn't take it any more, then we watched movies. (Gran Turino is just as incredible in Spanish as it is in English, but there's nothing that compares to the tone of Clint Eastwood's real voice.)
At one point all of the news stations were off the air except the one supporting the (now)ex-president. That was a little strange. And they announce a curfew for the next 48 hours from 9 pm- 6 am. At about 8:30 pm the new president announced that everyone should go about business as usual tomorrow.
Throughout the day we discussed/prayed about whether or not I should go to Utila with the group tomorrow. At one point the whole trip was cancelled, but at this time they are planning to leave in the morning. I made a personal decision not to go. I can see both sides. If there are problems in this country, the safest place you could be is a remote island, but for me the concern was driving the 6 hours to the port city and then getting onto the boat safely to get to Utila. I know that all of us feel good about our choices and have prayed hard about it. I feel strange to be the only one who is not going but I believe I was told several times that it was not the right choice for me. Who knows what God has in store for me this week, but I do my best to listen and do as He tells me, so we'll see...
Please pray for the safety of those who are traveling tomorrow. And if you are the praying type, please also pray for peace in this country as they settle in with a new president. As for me, I'll be staying home for one more day to feel things out. Then I'm going to do the breakfast program for Tony for the rest of the week. That's all for now. So nice to fall asleep listening to the rain. Especially since all of my clothes are clean and dry.
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