"Teatro in times of plague"

The current count: 343 cases, 23 deaths, 6 cases in Progreso. 69.6% of the cases are in San Pedro Sula / Progreso and surrounding area.

Luis passed the day trying to get a legal Safe Conduct from the police, as the represtative of the organization; that way he can circulate in the city. He had to go to the teatro to print up a formal request with my signature.

Our internet provider has cut off the internet in the teatro. Just what we needed. And we probably won’t be able to pay it until Monday at the earliest. (I’m using the signal in the house, which is good.)

Once he had designed an official-looking request he had to take it to the police. He says the whole downtown area was completely deserted. “Come back in an hour.” He went back in an hour and of course the person who has to sign the document hasn’t showed up.

He waited another hour. Nothing. The commissioner hasn’t appeared. Well, come back tomorrow.

Plans are afoot to distribute the bags of food tomorrow. But that depends on the vehicle. Edy has a plan taking advantage of an ex-fragua who works in the city hall. Let’s see if that works out.

Friday, April 10, 2020 (Good Friday)

New count: 39 new cases for a total of 382; 23 deaths, six cases in Progreso. Seems like the new cases are all in the San Pedro / Progreso orbit.

Progreso was calm today, but there were food riots in Choloma, San Pedro y Tegucigalpa. Choloma is about half-way between San Pedro and Puerto Cortés (the sea); it is a major center of maquilas, and it is included in the zone of the full state of siege. The promised government assistance is not showing up and people are literally hungry. Most prominently, those who live on the day’s sales of one or another thing (often foodstuffs).

In Progreso, things were calm. The police published an order for next week for doing essential shopping according to last digits of i.d. Then two hours later they cancelled it.

Today was especially “closed” because it is Good Friday, which in normal times is a day when everything shuts down – so today was kind of Good Friday squared.

For some reason Edy couldn’t get together with Dago about distributing the bags of food to the teatro family. I suspect because of Good Friday – it’s strong in people’s tradition.

We did a Good Friday service in the house in the afternoon, which Martín García filmed and sent out via Radio Progreso and Facebook.

Luis is out of gasoline and the gas stations are closed. So many things that are always there aren’t there.

Keep safe and wash your hands.

Jack.

 

 


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