"Teatro in times of plague"

Wednesday, July 1, 2020 / 19,558 cases, 497 deaths.

Thursday, July 2, 2020 / 20,262 cases, 542 deaths.

Chiquita Brands (aka United Fruit Company, Tela Railroad Company) is moving its port from Puerto Cortés here in Honduras to Puerto Barrios en Guatemala. They still maintain their plantations, but all the product will no longer go by this port. I imagine that’s a heavy blow for the finances of the port. JOH has been released from the hospital after conquering COVID. It’s hard to figure out what went on there. His wife is still sick at home.

Luis has created the first minute or so of The Lorax. He sent it to me for approval; it’s only a copy for the computer, but I think it sounds quite good. Have to hear it on better equipment, of course, but it’s certainly a good start.

Friday, July 3, 2020 / 21,120 cases, 591 deaths.

NPR had a story today that Latin America is now a hot spot that has overtaken Europe. About half of the cases are Brazil.

I went out this morning. My passport ends in 5, today’s digit. The official acts say the number can be that of your passport. So I sneak that in as well as my Resident I.D. which is 9, next Thursday.

I went to the office mainly to see Chito to get his youngest son up to date on his school payments – we have covered all four of his kids.

There was less traffic than last week. A lot of people in line at Farmacia Castillo, but no one outside in Farmacia San Antonio. The teatro now has a somewhat habited feel: there have been the rehearsals and recording sessions and the actors have cleaned things for those.

Saturday, July 4, 2020 / 22,116 cases, 591 deaths

10299 cases, 336 deaths.

Paul Robeson: Artists are the radical voice of civilization. (Heard on NPR).

Sunday, July 5, 2020 / 22,921 cases, 629 deaths.

¿Donde está el dinero? The boat bearing the portable hospitals remains on the way I suspect the boat is going to get caught in a tropical storm and sink at sea.

Monday, July 6, 2020 / 23,943 cases, 639 deaths.

Medical personnel are clamoring for a super lock-down of the San Pedro area, especially las maquilas, which seem to be hotbeds of contagion. The doctors are threatening to go on strike if they don’t close the maquilas.

Tuesday, July 7, 2020 / 24,665 casos, 656 deaths.

We’re averaging 4 deaths per day in Progreso. The doctors are calling for a total lock-down of the whole Sula valley. Many calls for the maquilas to shut down again.

Wednesday, July 8, 2020 / 25,428 cases, 677 deaths

¿Donde está el dinero? The boat has been spotted between Cuba and Dominican Republic and will arrive on Friday. With two portable hospitals. Nothing about the other four.

Thursday, July 9, 2020 / 25,978 cases, 694 deaths.

The consul of Turkey in Honduras has said that only the shell of one hospital is arriving in the ship that will arrive tomorrow. News media prohibited for the downloading of the hospitals. ¿Sound like they have something they want to keep secret?

I went out today – it was my number (9). There were quite a few cars but not so many people on the streets. I went around the long way to the teatro; the building next to us, known as Centro la Fragua, is a retreat/meeting center of the diocese. It has been requisitioned for COVID uses. They readied it quite a while ago, but now a couple of days ago started seeing patients. I was afraid there would be too much congestion on the street that went by the Centro. When I came around to the gate from the other side I saw that I was right: there were parked cars blocking the street. Israel (the watchman) had the gate closed; I honked and he came to open for me.

It was about 9:00; I was the first one to arrive. Luis called; he was picking up María. The grapevine has it that we are going to be super closed down for two weeks starting Sunday. But I can’t imagine that: people have to have food. When they arrived we decided to go to the bank to withdraw a cuota for the troupe. We had been planning on doing that next week, but just in case they really do close down….. María figured out what we needed and Luis and I headed for the bank; Edy arrived as we were leaving.

There were not many people in line at the bank. The ritual aspersions are now old hat, ot course, as are the social distancing chairs to wait in. It was all quick and efficient. We went back to the teatro and María set to organizing the payment. Edy and Luis and I touched base. We’ve got the great unknown of what will happen next week. Everything depends on whether we can get the actors together. On the other hand, Luis says he has the editing of El Lorax at about 50%, so things are moving along in spite of everything. I made it back to the house just in time for Mass at 11:30.

Keep safe and wash your hands, 

 Jack

 

 

 

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