Night Flight from Honduras

OK, it was late afternoon, but still it was pretty amazing.

For those of you who don't know, my Episcopal Church takes a weeklong mission trip to Honduras every year. This is my third year to go, and the trip was great: lots of hard work, but lots of grateful people. We set up a small medical clinic and I play Pharmacist, explaining to the Hondurans how to take their medications, in Spanish.

Towards the middle of the week, I just happened to be watching TV, when I noticed that my remote control stopped working. I clicked and clicked, but the image didn't change. Turns out the channels were changing, but they were all the same broadcast. It showed happy children jumping through fresh, running water, cooking tortillas, and smiling in front of a huge Honduran flag.

It was all government propaganda and I was amazed to see how the president was able to seize the airwaves for his own infomercial. The image then cut to a brief, live speech, where Mr. Zelaya announced his plan for an election the following Sunday. The election would be to vote on allowing a change to the Constitution to allow him to remain in power. It was a brief speech and he immediately rushed out of the room, allowing no questions. Then it was back to the Cartoon Network.

As the next few days went on, there was a lot of uncertainty and concern about what would happen. We went about our work, but the last day we were to drive to Tegucigalpa and stay overnight, prior to our flight back to the US. We were concerned, but not real nervous, because we figured the rhetoric and posturing would continue for weeks or months.

Our flight went out without incident, although there were some rain showers that almost delayed our flight. It was the last one out.

Truly, truly amazing that we got out just as the Honduran military was mobilizing to surprise Mr. Zelayo in his pajamas with a free trip to Costa Rica. A missed flight, or a day's difference would have complicated our lives immensely. We have heard how the airports were closed for a time, how all the electricity was cut off for much of the day yesterday, and how the turmoil just ratcheted up significantly overnight.

Thank God for planning our trip so well, coup-free.