Want to know what life is like for me in Honduras?
Thursday offered quite a bit of excitement!
Our day began with our usual schedule, wake up at 5 am, pack a lunch, pile too many people into one car, drive into Tegucigalpa, meet Teresa, load into the back of a pick-up truck and fly up to the mountain to Valle de Angeles. We have been doing this for 4 days, so why should today be any different?
God, apparently had other ideas for our day. After hitting a rather large bump while going at a high speed, Teresa’s truck started making a grinding noise, leading to our first detour of the day – a repair shop. Read some of my teammates’ blogs to hear the full story. Suffice to say, we almost saw two men die.
On with the day, when we finally reached to farm we plodded through mud and hauled rocks. Just a normal day. Around 3 pm, we started washing the tools and boots to get ready to leave. We all piled into the trucks and headed back down the mountain for showers. Jah-Jah and I were in the back of Teresa’s truck and the rest of the two teams were split between the cabs of the two trucks. Teresa’s truck took us on our second detour of the day. As we approached an intersection, Jah-Jah and I noticed that traffic was getting worse than usual. We weren’t really moving forward and the other cars kept pulling u-turns. I thought that this was quite strange, so we craned forward, trying to see what was happening up ahead. All I could see was a large group of red motorcyclists blocking the intersection. As Teresa maneuvered to get around the traffic, the truck turned and we saw a mass of people, all dressed in red.
"Oh, it's a parade…..I mean a protest!"
Jah-Jah and I looked at each other, "This is pretty cool!"
Jah-Jah starts looking for his camera and I sart trying to figure out who all these people are.
“Umm……I’m pretty sure that’s a communist symbol on those flags."
Yup, we’re in the middle of a protest by the Honduran socialist party, the Libres.
Jah-Jah and I thought it was the coolest thing ever, being in the back of a pick-up truck driving right by a communist protest in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Teresa and the girls in the front were practically having panic attacks, probably somewhat justified considering the Libres’ opinions regarding Americans. Everyone in the truck finally convinced Jah-Jah and I, through crazy hand signals, that we ought to lay down in the back of the truck and stay down. So Jah-Jah and I just lay there listening to the protesters chanting and yelling.
When we finally got to Teresa's the girls were terrified. Teresa told us that the reason she wanted us down in the back of the truck was that this political party hates Americans. With my white skin and blonde hair we were kinda a target. Probably a good thing we didn't stay sitting up. However, I really wanted to see what was happening.
Exceedingly frustrating.
Just another day in Honduras!
