Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Life Goes On
Life does go on. After waiting 3 weeks, my kids finally were able to take their first test. After 3 weeks a student admitted she thought my name was Miss Murder. :) After 3 weeks my students are back wanting hugs and ready to learn. It has been good for all of us to be back in school. Things are settling down in the country. Might be the calm before the storm. There still is no resolution. Zelaya is still in the Brazilian Embassy. We still don't have our freedom of speech etc. It isn't over, but we continue on. We are enjoying not feeling stuck on the school compound, taking walks up the mountain. We still don't venture down into the city as we had before, but we'll take what we can get. Radio and TV stations have been shut down because of the suspending of our rights. People are being arrested. Other countries are hurting too...In Guinea they are experiencing something almost identical to Honduras. The former president of Peru was sentenced to jail for 6 years for his corrupt behavior. There is the frightening earthquake and tsunami by Sumatra. There are all the deaths in the Philippines with the flooding...There is a little girl born at 28 weeks fighting for her life in Thailand. We live in a broken hurting world, but we have a God who is so much bigger than all of this. We have a God who is looking out for us. That is where we put our trust. I have been asked if I or my colleagues are second guessing being here. I for one am not, and I have not heard from others that they are. We all trust that God has put us here at this time and He will watch out for us. We know that God is bigger than the situation at hand. Thank you for praying with me and for me. We certainly do feel the prayers! Continue to pray!
Monday, September 28, 2009
My Freedom of Speech
Interview with Fox News:
MICHELETTI: You cannot change the constitution ever.
VAN SUSTEREN: Ever?
MICHELETTI: Ever.
VAN SUSTEREN: There is no way to amend it?
MICHELETTI: Since 1980, (inaudible) is who made the constitution. And they thought that someday there was going to be big man who would try to change the rule in our country, is why they support two, three, four articles in the constitution that it's not allowed to be president again.
Email we got from the US Embassy today:
The Embassy advises citizens residing in and visiting Honduras that the
de facto regime issued a decree suspending certain rights under the
Honduran constitution on Sunday, September 27, 2009. This decree
affects all people in Honduras, including non-Hondurans. Specifically,
the following articles of the Honduran Constitution have been suspended
for the next 45 days (until November 11, 2009):
Article 69: The right to personal freedom
Article 72: Freedom of Speech
Article 78: Freedom of Association
Article 81: Freedom of Movement
Article 84: The right to due process _
For the next 45 days, the defacto regime has stated that the local and
national police, at times to be assisted by the military, will arrest
individuals for the following reasons:
* Disobeying announced curfew, or appearing to engage in
suspicious activities
* Gathering in public without prior approval from police and
military forces
* Carrying out media announcements violating the law or government
resolutions , or offending human dignity or any public official
The de facto regime has also stated the following:
* Individuals that are arrested for violating the above listed
restrictions will be detained
* All public installations which are occupied by demonstrators or
which are occupied by persons carrying out activities prohibited by law
will be cleared
MICHELETTI: You cannot change the constitution ever.
VAN SUSTEREN: Ever?
MICHELETTI: Ever.
VAN SUSTEREN: There is no way to amend it?
MICHELETTI: Since 1980, (inaudible) is who made the constitution. And they thought that someday there was going to be big man who would try to change the rule in our country, is why they support two, three, four articles in the constitution that it's not allowed to be president again.
Email we got from the US Embassy today:
The Embassy advises citizens residing in and visiting Honduras that the
de facto regime issued a decree suspending certain rights under the
Honduran constitution on Sunday, September 27, 2009. This decree
affects all people in Honduras, including non-Hondurans. Specifically,
the following articles of the Honduran Constitution have been suspended
for the next 45 days (until November 11, 2009):
Article 69: The right to personal freedom
Article 72: Freedom of Speech
Article 78: Freedom of Association
Article 81: Freedom of Movement
Article 84: The right to due process _
For the next 45 days, the defacto regime has stated that the local and
national police, at times to be assisted by the military, will arrest
individuals for the following reasons:
* Disobeying announced curfew, or appearing to engage in
suspicious activities
* Gathering in public without prior approval from police and
military forces
* Carrying out media announcements violating the law or government
resolutions , or offending human dignity or any public official
The de facto regime has also stated the following:
* Individuals that are arrested for violating the above listed
restrictions will be detained
* All public installations which are occupied by demonstrators or
which are occupied by persons carrying out activities prohibited by law
will be cleared
Congress has asked Micheletti to annul this to which he responded he would talk to the congress at an opportune moment in the next few days. So the last president was impeached because of trying to rewrite the constitution, and now the next president is taking away basic human rights. What is this country coming to? Taking away the rights of people is not going to fix the problem at hand. The government wants to feel that they are in control therefore they tie everyone’s hands behind their backs and take away their voice.
We had school today. We dismissed at 2 instead of 2:40, otherwise it was a ‘normal’ day. Out of my 140 students only 2 were absent. I was very shocked so many students came. They had stories from the past week. Being in the wrong spot at the wrong time and fearing for their lives. One student’s grandfather lives right across from the Brazilian Embassy. He told stories of the protesters demanding water or they would urinate on the house; taking things from the yard to throw at people, demanding to come into the house to escape from the gasses. The grandpa at times stood in front of the door with his gun telling people to back off. Some students admitted that taking the bus home was scary. The military was yelling at them for being out past curfew. But everyone made it home safe. We did our best to create a normal school environment; a respite. The rest of the week we are dismissing at 12:30 so that our buses will have adequate time to get the students home if by chance the curfew would be moved up. The majority of the students are Micheletti supporters but there are Zelaya supporters. They are mostly respectful of each other; though they can talk about politics like many of us can talk about sports. It is fascinating.
Keep praying for this country. There are random acts of violence and innocent lives being taken. The government will not allow OAS members to come into the country, Micheletti keeps delaying the meeting. The presidential candidates met with the US ambassador today. Pray that God will use various leaders of the OAS and leaders of nations to walk alongside the government and find a peaceful solution. Pray that both Micheletti and Zelaya will stop being stubborn and agree to work out a solution. Pray for our students, bus drivers, and nannies as they travel the streets each day. Pray for the parents as their kids are away from them. Pray for this country!
We had school today. We dismissed at 2 instead of 2:40, otherwise it was a ‘normal’ day. Out of my 140 students only 2 were absent. I was very shocked so many students came. They had stories from the past week. Being in the wrong spot at the wrong time and fearing for their lives. One student’s grandfather lives right across from the Brazilian Embassy. He told stories of the protesters demanding water or they would urinate on the house; taking things from the yard to throw at people, demanding to come into the house to escape from the gasses. The grandpa at times stood in front of the door with his gun telling people to back off. Some students admitted that taking the bus home was scary. The military was yelling at them for being out past curfew. But everyone made it home safe. We did our best to create a normal school environment; a respite. The rest of the week we are dismissing at 12:30 so that our buses will have adequate time to get the students home if by chance the curfew would be moved up. The majority of the students are Micheletti supporters but there are Zelaya supporters. They are mostly respectful of each other; though they can talk about politics like many of us can talk about sports. It is fascinating.
Keep praying for this country. There are random acts of violence and innocent lives being taken. The government will not allow OAS members to come into the country, Micheletti keeps delaying the meeting. The presidential candidates met with the US ambassador today. Pray that God will use various leaders of the OAS and leaders of nations to walk alongside the government and find a peaceful solution. Pray that both Micheletti and Zelaya will stop being stubborn and agree to work out a solution. Pray for our students, bus drivers, and nannies as they travel the streets each day. Pray for the parents as their kids are away from them. Pray for this country!
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Today we were able to go get groceries. We drove right by the US and Brazilian Embassies. Of this series of pictures I took the first 3 and the rest I found on the internet.
This is between the US and Brazilian Embassies.
This is a gas station owned by a Pinares Family. It is between the two embassies which was a hot spot. Abierto means open. It is just boarded up for protection.
This is the road leading to the Brazilian Embassy.
This is between the US and Brazilian Embassies.
This is a gas station owned by a Pinares Family. It is between the two embassies which was a hot spot. Abierto means open. It is just boarded up for protection.
This is the road leading to the Brazilian Embassy.
Friday, September 25, 2009
What is going on according to me...
Last night we had a cultural adjustment meeting with the president of the school board and his wife. They have been living in Honduras for 19 years and have been missionaries their whole life. Mr. Caudill growing up in Cuba. They are very knowledgeable people and after our culture session a few of us asked them to clarify some of the happenings. So using what they told us and from what I hear from the news I will try to summarize what in the world is going on here.
A little background. Zelaya and Hugo Chavez are buddy buddy. Hugo Chavez is the president of Venezuela but more accurately would be described as dictator. This summer Zelaya tried to re-write the Honduran constitution so that he could be elected for another term. The Honduran constitution allows for presidents to only serve one term so there is not threat of dictatorship. Because Mel was acting in a way that was breaking the constitution the government took action. They were trying to prevent exactly what Mel and Hugo wanted, so they had Mel impeached. This is what is known as the coup. Micheletti was the president of the congress which is the person next in line to be president, like the vice president. So that is why he is president.
The problem with the impeachment is that Mel was not tried right away for his illegal actions. Why things were not done differently, I do not know. But as you may or may not know he attempted to fly back into the country and hung out at the Nicaraguan border, stepping foot in once. It was kind of a chess match to see what he would do next. Over the summer Chavez paid people, not even Hondurans necessarily, to protest. He paid them a day's wage and they would walk the streets of Tegucigalpa protesting on behalf of Mel. Again Chavez is very behind this.
So why did Mel come back? Chavez and Mel saw that the country was running just fine without Mel. Yes the world was/is not recognizing Honduras and its government, but the country was peaceful. They realized that the elections would happen in November, Micheletti would hand over the power in January, the world would eventually realize that what happened was legal and start funding Honduras again. This could not happen for Mel. So he came back.
He came back with the aid of Brazil. Brazil is the 2nd richest country in the Western Hemisphere and is on the up. It wasn't by chance that Brazil was chosen to help. He came across the Guatemala border in a car with South American license plates. And he has been in the Brazilian embassy since, creating all sorts of problems. What has to happen is A. Mel turns himself in to be arrested or B. Brazil gives him political asylum meaning that Brazil uses an embassy car and brings him to the airport, puts him on a plane, and flies him to Brazil. He cannot be attacked when that is taking place or while he is at the embassy because attacking an embassy is attacking a country. That is why the troops only surrounding the embassy cutting of the water and electricity. At one point for about 15 minutes they even tried using a really annoying noise to get him out. Now it is the waiting game...
Another question is why is the world supporting Mel? Really why are they? Mel's actions were not legal. He is a very corrupt man. Mr. Caudill worked for many years bringing water to the rural communities of this country. Before Mel was president he too worked for one of the government water organizations. Mr. Caudill met with Mel to present a joint project to bring water to three communities close to where Mel was from. The way that Mr. Caudill presented it was three times cheaper than what Mel had planned. But when Mr. Caudill presented it Mel just simply laughed in his face not giving him the time of day. Why was Mr. Caudill's plan 3 times cheaper? Mr. Caudill wasn't pocketing two thirds of the money whereas Mel was. Mel claims to want to help the poor when really he is stealing from the poor. So again, why is the world supporting such a corrupt man? It has to do with money. Not that Honduras has much money, it is the 3rd poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, but the world has to be benefit ting somehow.
So that is the story. Other random facts. We read somewhere that every day that Honduras has a daytime curfew it cost the country 50 million dollars. We also read the Micheletti thinks the country can survive for 6 months on the food it has here. We can't. Every time there is a daytime curfew all of Central America suffers because the borders close and no trucks can pass through and you have to pass through Honduras. Micheletti definitely isn't perfect. But in the end, he is following the constitution and will allow the elections to happen.
What is going on here right now? Things are pretty peaceful. There are a few demonstrations but people are at work trying to lead as normal of a life as possible. Earlier yes there were cars and stores that were ruined. Tuesday they lifted the curfew and grocery stores were madhouses. There are pictures on yahoo.com. We don't have school yet today. Why? Our school represents families with money. Our kids run a great risk of being kidnapped. Last year in one week there were 4 kids from other bilingual schools who were kidnapped, one killed. Parents are not jumping at letting their kids out quite yet. Hopefully Monday we'll start up again.
What are my thoughts and reactions and how am I dealing with living in this historical time? All I can do is pray. I hope that you will join me in prayer. As I have said, there is a lot of corrupt tendencies in this area of the world. Pray for a peaceful resolve. This has never been scary for me. The only fear I have is for my students and their families. This has divided families and brought fear to our kids. As they were getting off the buses on Monday, they were questioned and targeted. Pray for them as we begin school again.
A little background. Zelaya and Hugo Chavez are buddy buddy. Hugo Chavez is the president of Venezuela but more accurately would be described as dictator. This summer Zelaya tried to re-write the Honduran constitution so that he could be elected for another term. The Honduran constitution allows for presidents to only serve one term so there is not threat of dictatorship. Because Mel was acting in a way that was breaking the constitution the government took action. They were trying to prevent exactly what Mel and Hugo wanted, so they had Mel impeached. This is what is known as the coup. Micheletti was the president of the congress which is the person next in line to be president, like the vice president. So that is why he is president.
The problem with the impeachment is that Mel was not tried right away for his illegal actions. Why things were not done differently, I do not know. But as you may or may not know he attempted to fly back into the country and hung out at the Nicaraguan border, stepping foot in once. It was kind of a chess match to see what he would do next. Over the summer Chavez paid people, not even Hondurans necessarily, to protest. He paid them a day's wage and they would walk the streets of Tegucigalpa protesting on behalf of Mel. Again Chavez is very behind this.
So why did Mel come back? Chavez and Mel saw that the country was running just fine without Mel. Yes the world was/is not recognizing Honduras and its government, but the country was peaceful. They realized that the elections would happen in November, Micheletti would hand over the power in January, the world would eventually realize that what happened was legal and start funding Honduras again. This could not happen for Mel. So he came back.
He came back with the aid of Brazil. Brazil is the 2nd richest country in the Western Hemisphere and is on the up. It wasn't by chance that Brazil was chosen to help. He came across the Guatemala border in a car with South American license plates. And he has been in the Brazilian embassy since, creating all sorts of problems. What has to happen is A. Mel turns himself in to be arrested or B. Brazil gives him political asylum meaning that Brazil uses an embassy car and brings him to the airport, puts him on a plane, and flies him to Brazil. He cannot be attacked when that is taking place or while he is at the embassy because attacking an embassy is attacking a country. That is why the troops only surrounding the embassy cutting of the water and electricity. At one point for about 15 minutes they even tried using a really annoying noise to get him out. Now it is the waiting game...
Another question is why is the world supporting Mel? Really why are they? Mel's actions were not legal. He is a very corrupt man. Mr. Caudill worked for many years bringing water to the rural communities of this country. Before Mel was president he too worked for one of the government water organizations. Mr. Caudill met with Mel to present a joint project to bring water to three communities close to where Mel was from. The way that Mr. Caudill presented it was three times cheaper than what Mel had planned. But when Mr. Caudill presented it Mel just simply laughed in his face not giving him the time of day. Why was Mr. Caudill's plan 3 times cheaper? Mr. Caudill wasn't pocketing two thirds of the money whereas Mel was. Mel claims to want to help the poor when really he is stealing from the poor. So again, why is the world supporting such a corrupt man? It has to do with money. Not that Honduras has much money, it is the 3rd poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, but the world has to be benefit ting somehow.
So that is the story. Other random facts. We read somewhere that every day that Honduras has a daytime curfew it cost the country 50 million dollars. We also read the Micheletti thinks the country can survive for 6 months on the food it has here. We can't. Every time there is a daytime curfew all of Central America suffers because the borders close and no trucks can pass through and you have to pass through Honduras. Micheletti definitely isn't perfect. But in the end, he is following the constitution and will allow the elections to happen.
What is going on here right now? Things are pretty peaceful. There are a few demonstrations but people are at work trying to lead as normal of a life as possible. Earlier yes there were cars and stores that were ruined. Tuesday they lifted the curfew and grocery stores were madhouses. There are pictures on yahoo.com. We don't have school yet today. Why? Our school represents families with money. Our kids run a great risk of being kidnapped. Last year in one week there were 4 kids from other bilingual schools who were kidnapped, one killed. Parents are not jumping at letting their kids out quite yet. Hopefully Monday we'll start up again.
What are my thoughts and reactions and how am I dealing with living in this historical time? All I can do is pray. I hope that you will join me in prayer. As I have said, there is a lot of corrupt tendencies in this area of the world. Pray for a peaceful resolve. This has never been scary for me. The only fear I have is for my students and their families. This has divided families and brought fear to our kids. As they were getting off the buses on Monday, they were questioned and targeted. Pray for them as we begin school again.
Monday, September 21, 2009
He's Back...
So in June the president was "kidnapped". If you want to read about it there is a writer from the Wall Street Journal that reported this story in truth from day one. The writer's last name is O'Grady...I just went to the WSJ online and searched Honduras, O'Grady and there are a few articles that show up. I have found them helpful in understanding everything. Anyway...Mel came back to Honduras today for the first time...There are a lot of demonstrations etc. You will probably see stuff in the news but rest assured I am safe. We don't have school tomorrow because the busses cannot travel safely. Pray that the situation can be resolved peacefully!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)