Septemeber 22nd 2009 10:00am
Yesterday I was very lazy. I don't work on Mondays, so I had a pretty good time layin around the apartment like a bum. The thing that I've learned about living on your own for the first time, and not depending on school cafeteria food, you get kind of depressed when you look in your half full fridge and find that it is half full with stuff you don't really want to just snack on.
So, I decided to make a shopping list and go to Plaza. I resolved to go out and explore more of the city after getting back from Plaza. When I completed my list, I decided that I was really tired, and should probably take a nap before I go. I didn't wake up until around 2:00pm, which was much later than I was hoping for.
I grabbed a quick shower, got dressed, and headed out. I am still getting used to where all the stores in the mall are, so it took me a little while to go around to the various shops that I needed to visit. I swear the "You are here" maps are wrong. I was definitely on the first floor, but was told that I was on the second.
I was in the last store of the day, buying a thumb drive for work, when a public statement came over the speakers all over the mall. It didn't give any explaination, it just said that the mall would be closing in five minutes. It was only 3:30 and it was not a holiday.
By the time I had finished paying for my purchase, most of the other stores were already locked up. The whole place looked like how malls with movie theaters do after you leave the late showing.
I got outside, and the streets were chaos. I knew that Tegucigalpa was capable of a complete mess as far as traffic goes, but I had never seen anything like yesterday afternoon. The streets were completely full, and none of the cars were moving all the way back to my apartment, and there was a line of about 200 people waiting for the bus.
As I reached my apartment, people started getting out of their cars and walking. I was concerned. I did not know why everyone was in such a rush to get...somewhere. I stopped and asked our gateman what was going on. He had a radio in one hand, and knew that I didn't speak Spanish all that well. He only said "Zelaya" and "get home" and gestured that I should head up to my apartment. I decided not to go back out to explore the city.
I climbed the stairs to my apartment and grabbed the phone as soon as I opened the door. I called Freddy, his line was busy. I called Marisela. Her line was busy. I turned on the local news station, and saw that Zelaya, the ousted president, had gotten back into the county. He was staying at the Brazilian Embassy and there were huge crowds gathered outside.
I went up to the roof to see how things looked from there. The whole city was gridlocked. Every intersection was a complete mess. No one was moving. People were out on one of the local highways walking to their destination. It would be as if I-71 were stopped and people were getting out of their cars and walking down the highway.
Yesterday I was very lazy. I don't work on Mondays, so I had a pretty good time layin around the apartment like a bum. The thing that I've learned about living on your own for the first time, and not depending on school cafeteria food, you get kind of depressed when you look in your half full fridge and find that it is half full with stuff you don't really want to just snack on.
So, I decided to make a shopping list and go to Plaza. I resolved to go out and explore more of the city after getting back from Plaza. When I completed my list, I decided that I was really tired, and should probably take a nap before I go. I didn't wake up until around 2:00pm, which was much later than I was hoping for.
I grabbed a quick shower, got dressed, and headed out. I am still getting used to where all the stores in the mall are, so it took me a little while to go around to the various shops that I needed to visit. I swear the "You are here" maps are wrong. I was definitely on the first floor, but was told that I was on the second.
I was in the last store of the day, buying a thumb drive for work, when a public statement came over the speakers all over the mall. It didn't give any explaination, it just said that the mall would be closing in five minutes. It was only 3:30 and it was not a holiday.
By the time I had finished paying for my purchase, most of the other stores were already locked up. The whole place looked like how malls with movie theaters do after you leave the late showing.
I got outside, and the streets were chaos. I knew that Tegucigalpa was capable of a complete mess as far as traffic goes, but I had never seen anything like yesterday afternoon. The streets were completely full, and none of the cars were moving all the way back to my apartment, and there was a line of about 200 people waiting for the bus.
As I reached my apartment, people started getting out of their cars and walking. I was concerned. I did not know why everyone was in such a rush to get...somewhere. I stopped and asked our gateman what was going on. He had a radio in one hand, and knew that I didn't speak Spanish all that well. He only said "Zelaya" and "get home" and gestured that I should head up to my apartment. I decided not to go back out to explore the city.
I climbed the stairs to my apartment and grabbed the phone as soon as I opened the door. I called Freddy, his line was busy. I called Marisela. Her line was busy. I turned on the local news station, and saw that Zelaya, the ousted president, had gotten back into the county. He was staying at the Brazilian Embassy and there were huge crowds gathered outside.
I went up to the roof to see how things looked from there. The whole city was gridlocked. Every intersection was a complete mess. No one was moving. People were out on one of the local highways walking to their destination. It would be as if I-71 were stopped and people were getting out of their cars and walking down the highway.
Everyone was antsy one way or another about Mel Zelaya's return. People were either really excited, or very upset. I could hear their excitement from my roof, but I still did not understand why everyone was going somewhere. Were they trying to get home? Were they trying to get to Mel?
I went back down to my apartment to try and call Freddy and Marisela again. I reached for the phone, and the power went out. The power, the internet, and the phones, were all dead. It was about 4:15. I decided to go out to my balcony to see what my neighbors were doing. Besides the ones in the street, they were all within their houses. I could see a lot of them sitting on their own balconies watching the scenes of the late afternoon unfold.
Around 4:30, the power came back on, and Micheletti, the current president, was on the only television station that worked. He started with what I already knew. Mel was back in the country, and was staying at the Brazilian Embassy. He went on to say that it meant nothing. Nothing would change because of this. He asked that the Honduran people would have faith in their government as supported by the legislative, judicial, and military branches. He ended the brief speech with a good round of "Vive Honduras".
The channel then went blank.
I found a piece of paper where Freddy had written down his home phone number, and decided to try my luck there. His sister answered and I asked her if she knew what was going on. She said she didn't, and that she would try and get Freddy. When Freddy got on the phone, he was able to explain a few things to me.
The cell phone services were down, most likely due to an overload on the system, much like how we couldn't use our phones at the Obama inauguration. The reason why everyone was going crazy in the streets was that at 3:30pm, the government publicly stated a 4:00pm curfew. The curfew would be in effect from 4:00pm until 6:00am this morning. The government was worried about protests, and decided that the best way to prevent them was to inact a curfew. Freddy didn't seem to worried about it, and even said that if I got bored over the next few hours, that I could probably walk over and watch a movie or two with him. I thanked Freddy for keeping me updated, and asked him to call me if he heard anything else that he thought I should know.
I went back up to the roof and watched the city. It was a very odd thing to see. The whole situation seemed like a scene out of a movie, and it seemed as though everyone in the movie knew their roles as actors. My neighbors watched more intently than I did, and would point out people yelling about their political excitement, or frustration.
At 5:00pm, the roads were just as bad as they were at 4:00pm. At 6:00pm, they were the same as at 5:00pm. I decided to go down to the pharmacy that is the first level of my apartment building and stock up a little bit. I bought some water, and a frozen pizza. The frozen pizza made for a delicious dinner.
I tried to watch the news, but the channel was still out, although the other channels had returned. I watched a little bit of House before going outside on my balcony to practice some of my Spanish. Being out on the balcony was a very queer experience. The whole city had gone from insane to sedated. There were no cars on the high way. No people outside on the sidewalks. No people on their balconies. No animals making sounds. It was the quietest I had ever head a city breathe.
At 7:15, the power went out again. It was very dark. Without fans, it was also very hot. I could see from my balcony the outline of where the power grid was out. I sat, prayed, and watched the city. At 7:45, the power came back on, and there were shouts and whoops of joy coming from every single house on the block. It was very fun to listen to.
Shortly after that, Freddy called back and let me know that the curfew had been extended from 6:00am, to 6:00pm. He explained that the curfew meant that anyone caught outside would be taken immediately to jail, no questions asked. Freddy told me that he had been talking with one of his friends, who wished that we had been given a heads up on the 26 hour curfew, so that we could have gotten some pizza and movies and holed up as a group for a while.
If only they gave us the courtesy of informing us ahead of time when we would be under curfews.
Freddy does not have very strong political opinions, but let me know that he felt that Mel should not have come back as he was pleased with Mel's initial removal, and he informed me that his return was a violation of the talks led by the Costa Rican president.
When I hung up with Freddy, I called Marisela to let her know I was okay and in my apartment. By this time, the phones were working again, and I was able to get through. Marisela was very happy to have Mel back, and went on for a while about her opinions on the topic. She explained to me that the national news channel was cut because it is biased towards Mel, a fact that I noticed when they showed Mel at the Brazilian Embassy and were playing the National Anthem on a loop. She also said that radio stations and other television channels have been cut in the past, and were currently cut off due to the situation.
After talking with Freddy and Marisela, I decided to go to bed. Because for the first time since high school, I was under a curfew.
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