"Teatro in Time of Plague – 63
A pleasant day, partly cloudy, a good day for cleaning up. In the afternoon there was a fairly heavy shower that seemed to be a presage of the cold front that is supposed to move in tonight or tomorrow. But it blew over. Today was the last day of the month, so it was time for the bank. I only had one person in line in front of me; it came off very quickly. We had a meeting with the directorial triumvirate to decide how to proceed. Luis is going to see if we can coordinate shows in the shelters with a food project that Radio Progreso has going. As I have said before, I don’t think there will be many long-term residents of the shelters; most homes are full of mud and their content ruined, but in general the house itself has not been destroyed. So the shelters should empty out fairly soon. It seems to me. Apart from shows in the shelters, we’ll continue recording kids stuff – there are two of them they will record on Friday. And Edy wants to figure out some sort of way to do Navidad Nuestra for radio.
Tuesday, December 1, 2020 - 108, 253 cases, 2, 918 deaths.
It was raining fairly hard when I awoke at 7:00 – the frente frío was greeting us. That lasted till about 9:30; it stopped raining hard, but a light drizzle came and went all day. And it was cold; the high was 74°F at noon. As far as I have heard that rain hasn’t contributed to rising waters so far. Edy worked on the program for the shelters, working from the try-out the other day. What he has sounds good two me – a couple of songs, and two kids’ stories acted out, plus a monologue in a “tall tales” tradition that is a popular traditional town story.teller form. The actors maintain basic distancing. And he has a beginning simplified radio version of Navidad Nuestra in the works. They will record the two stories (El Cordoncito by Vicente Leñero and El Niño que Buscaba Ayer) on Friday.
Wednesday, December 2, 2020 - 108, 641 cases, 2, 927 deaths.
It was overcast most of the day, but no rain. The clouds broke up in the late afternoon, and I suspect we have said good-bye to the frente frío. There’s another one moving in on Saturday. Edy was polishing the program for the shelters; I watched a bit and it is really quite good. Now let’s hope we can keep the actors away from the audience and safe from Covid. Luis is working on having a great Christmas celebration on our web page. We’ve got two different radio programs on colonial baroque music for Christmas. Una Navidad en Honduras is a beautiful story by a Honduran author who lives in Switzerland. And for English speakers there is a reading I did of Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas in Wales; I did it for nieces and nephews a few years ago, and it holds up well. We’ve kind of moved into a double life: one life in the areas that are still underwater, and one life that is moving back into something like Covid normal.
Thursday, December 3, 2020 - The official statistics page has not been updated.
A pleasant day, partly cloudy and not too hot. I don’t know why but there was a lot of helicopter activity today.
Friday, December 4, 2020 - 109, 760 cases, 2, 938 deaths.
It was clear and cool in the morning; there was rain during siesta (not much) and it remained overcast all afternoon. A friend from Lima tells me they are trying to bulldoze the mud out of the streets. The water has receded but the mud stays. He and his family have cleaned their house and moved back in; but almost everything is ruined.—They are sleeping on the floor. Edy and Luis recorded today. I don’t know how far they got; when I heard them they were in El Cordoncito. It was a good day to record – there was surprisingly little outside noise. They are trying to rehabilitate the jail, but it got hit hard by both hurricanes. They are saying they are shooting for having it back in use by Christmas.
Saturday, December 5, 2020 - The official statistics page has not been updated.
It was cloudy in the morning but cleared up around noon.
Sunday, December 6, 2020 - 110, 723 cases, 2, 945 deaths.
Partly cloudy and not very hot. Tomorrow another cold front comes in, they say. Clean-up work continues apace at the airport. They want to get it done as fast as possible; it’s a major factor in the economy of the whole valley and beyond. They seem to have gotten most of the mud out of the terminal. Yesterday they turned on the electricity to see what would happen; nothing noteworthy, which is of course good news – it turned on. They continue to shoot for having it up and running for the New Year. Meanwhile, a couple of lines are running flights into La Ceiba, which has the capacity for international and a good runway, but the terminal is very small. (Spirit and AirEurope are the two that have flights). The government has sent an official request to Washington to grant TPS to Hondurans migrants in the wake of the hurricanes. It went to this Chad Wolf who was just put down by a judge about something -- ¿was it DACA? – as being unlawfully in the position he is in. TPS is Temporary Protected Status; it was given out after Mitch, and to Salvadoreños after the earthquake there. This situation is obviously going to cause mass migration. The whole area to the north of Progreso remains underwater.
Keep safe and wash your hands,
Jack
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c/o Jesuit Advancement Office
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