golpe+1

(Advisory: Some national and international channels are deactivated by the order of the current government....)

This morning a protest formed on the bridge leading out of Tocoa. The bridge where this took place is the central vein of transportation between La Ceiba and Tocoa. My host brother told me he saw 500 people on the bridge. By the afternoon the police had set up a barricade 2 blocks away, so that no one else could join the protesters.

I went to a local internet cafe today to print some worksheets for class. My normal cafe was closed, which struck me as odd becasue they are usually open seven days a week. I walked around the corner to another cafe that is somewhat closer to my gym. It was closed too. It became apparent that the internet was shut down in town, for at least today.

The ATM's were out of order too. I tried to access my checking account, but could not. Communication lines have been severed.

My students came to school, asking me if we were going to have class. This political crisis is affecting all levels of daily life, young and hold. It feels so strange, everything being upset by politics. I never realized how lucky we in the states are for having a stable country.

Tonight will be the second night of curfews in Tocoa, and all of Honduras. In Spanish they are called toques de queda. After class an eight year old student asked me how she was going to get home. She lives two blocks away from the school, but the curfew had already begun. I told her I would go with her so she would feel safe. As we left I noticed there were some police officers standing a block away. While leery, I continued walking her home.

Suddenly my neighbor, a girl my age, approached us from her house. She told me that I should go back to my home(+school), becasue she was worried I would have problems with the police. As my neighbor is also a teacher, she is well aquainted with this student and brought her home.

I walked back to the family compound, and joined my host mom. She was sitting in the patio, overlooking calle chela, one of the main drags in Tocoa. Within two minutes we saw two cars drive by on an otherwise empty street. The first was a police department pickup truck. In the bed were five soldiers, and 3 civilians or so. The second was a civilian van, being driven by a soldier, and filled with more civilians, at least 6 or so. These people were all rounded up by the military, and were being taken to the local jail to spend the night.

About ten minutes later another police pickup drove by my neighbor's house. There were about 8 people hanging out in their patio. The soldiers told them to go to bed. The mother of the house, a Garífuna woman in her mid-forties replied, "I'll go to bed when I am tired!"

The soldiers got out of the truck, and then chased them all back into their house, six girls screaming. Satisfied, they got back in their truck and left. While those girls stayed inside for the rest of the night, I couldn't but help notice, that I could see faces peering out of most windows facing calle chela. Slowly, the young people crept out of their homes to sit on front stoops, spying the goings on of the almost nonexistent traffic.

I stayed outside for another 30 minutes, hoping to catch another glimpse of this. All I did see was an old man biking home, and a teenager dancing in the street, testing fate as teenagers do so well. He was hooting and whooping, dancing, and had the whole block as his audience. He danced for about 3 minutes, then wandered home.

Several channels are blocked on the television. I can't find CNN. Maybe I've got the wrong channel, but I can't find it. I've attached a photo that shows a message from the Honduran cable company based out of Ceiba. The photo pretty much sums it up (I'm lucky to have a mobil usb internet attachment). People out here are wondering what's going on in Tegucigalpa and the rest of the country. We're waiting for for things to get back to normal. Wednesday, some tell me.

Manuel Zelaya declared today that he is coming back to Honduras on Thursday to finish his term.