riots, a trip to the hospital, and a party.
Disclaimer: We are COMPLETELY SAFE!
ok…
Wow what a day we had yesterday! So just as a little background info on the situation that is going down in the village/city of Candelaria and Chichigalpa:
Sometime early wednesday morning there was a shootout between some area gangs and the POLICIA. well the Police ended up killing atleast one gang member. Which then enraged the people of the community so the families and friends and other gang members were enraged so the all began gathering outside the police station, which we witnessed while making a run to the grocery store, and to the bakery. Well apparently the tempers continued to grow and pretty soon an all out riot began in the streets of Chichigalpa (which is the main city that newsong base neighbors)
meanwhile….
on the Newsong Base Andres and I were playing with the wiggle stick (at-least thats what i call it, it’s one of those skateboard type things but instead of having 4 wheels it only has 2 and you wiggle your feet back and forth to make it go….you know what I’m talking about) well like I said Andres and I were playing with it (and I must say I’m getting pretty good!) But in a split second while Andres was taking his turn on it he hit a groove in the cement which then catapulted him off of the wiggle stick and straight onto the ground. In an effort to catch himself he naturally put his hands down only to have his right wrist and elbow break under him. OOOOUCK! I was standing there watching the whole thing and realized pretty quickly that he was not OK. So we took him the hospital in the nearby city of Chinendega to the emergency room.
back to the riot situation…
as we were leaving Chichigalpa to go the hosptial the riots were really breaking loose. We had to go a completely different route to avoid all of the crazy people in the street. We did get close enough to the fires in the streets and the plumes of tear gas rising amongst the hoards of people. Turns out about the same time some guys in the mobs of people were getting in a fight and one guy was shoot in the back and two other guys were hurt (but I’m not exactly sure where.) I only know this part because as we were sitting in the emergency room in Chinendega the ambulance carrying those men came and they wheeled them past me on stretchers.
Ok back to the hosptial…
turns out Andres broke his elbow and wrist on his right arm. He is doing great and in good spirits to have his entire right arm in cast nearly to his shoulder.
OH yeah and I mentioned something about a party!…
After all of the was over we still had a party! Yesterday was Kenia’s 19th Birthday…so we helped throw a party for her complete with masquerade mask, cakes, and dancing! Lots of DANCING! It was a great way to cap of what was a pretty hectic and crazy day.
So I filled you in on all of that, to say this:
please be in prayer for the situation in Chichigalpa and also for sweet Andres.
It was a pretty epic day…hopefully we will have many more epic days, ,just not anymore quite like this one!
safe and sound,
Meg
