Unrest

Hello Family!

So Grandma B. passed away…..I will miss her. I love you all and thank you always for your letters. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARLY!!!! I hope it was a good one.

Well it has been quite a week….ha-ha. Okay so for the Food distribution went well (sort of). When we arrived at the church there was already a bunch of people outside the gates trying to get in. We had two gates to guard, the exit and the entrance. We didn’t get any guards, security, or anything like that so the Elders became the security. When I first got there (around 8:30 a.m.), my job was to keep people from entering the exit gate while those who had received food were leaving. Yeah, I got yelled at a bunch while I was doing that job. Ha-ha

Then I saw the people carrying out their bag of food that they received and half of them were women or elderly people. I didn’t like the guarding the gate job I was doing so I started to help those people carrying out the bags. The bags were pretty heavy so I can see why it was hard for them, they weighed 50 lbs each, but it was pretty easy for me I’m “Nica” (a nicaraguense) now so I could do it with out to much strain. That was probably the thing I enjoyed that day, helping those who needed it. Outside the gates they were tired of waiting to get in and it was like 100-degree weather that day and once they were inside they just wanted their food so they were kind of impatient and pushy. But when they were leaving I was helping them and they were all happy and nice., so that was awesome I enjoyed helping people with that.

This is kind of how it was organized. First we have these huge iron gates all around the church to protect it from people or harm and at the entrance they would only let in a certain amount of people at a time who had tickets. Then before they entered they had to sign in, tell them their name, where they live and which branch they were in. Then they went through a door that leads to the Chapel where they waited for their turn. We had a T.V. hooked up with a church DVD running so they could watch and learn about the gospel. Then after that they entered the entrance hall and showed their ticket again, they were then given their bag of food with 20lb bags of sugar, beans, rice, and 15 lbs bag of flour. Then they exited out of the back of the church where they filled up jugs they brought with them, with 500ml of cooking oil. After that I would take their bags and help them out to the exit gate.

All was going well until we ran out of food and there were still a lot of people outside the entrance gates with tickets. Once they made sure all the members got their food first, they started to give it to everyone else, some people started getting rowdy outside so someone inside the church said, “Alright that’s it, there is no more food”. Since I was outside working the whole day till 5:30 p.m. when they stopped handing out food, I really thought we were out of food and I started telling people at the gate “sorry there is no more food”. Some of the people start calling me “gringo” and “mentiroso” (which means liar) so that was cool ;P

After I was yelled at and everyone outside the gate was mad at me, I actually went inside the church. That is when I found out something pathetic, there still was some food left inside and the three branch presidents were putting the extra food in the office. HUH SOME CHARITY?! So I was happy that day doing what I was doing to help until I found out what they were doing inside.
I think that was the most unorganized food distribution project ever! First they gave food to the members and I can understand giving to member families that need it, but they gave it to every member. Second they kept the remaining food just because the people outside were getting angry and rowdy and they didn’t want any problems. I can see why many were angry, some of them stood in the sun all day like me (I got so sunburned; I am almost crispy brown ha-ha).
There is not much I can do now, but at least some people that really needed food did get it.

Second part of my good news ha-ha. Nicaragua is now under a dictatorship. The president of Nicaragua changed the constitution so he is re-elected as many times as he wants. Wow, that’s going to bring war…huh… speaking about war… THERE WAS ONE HERE IN PUERTO CABEZAS!!!

The Miskito people of this area have a king and the king is tired of the way things are being run here as far as political and government stuff, so he decides to overthrow the government. Not only that but it was printed in a news paper saying he was going to do it on OCT 18th. His whole purpose is to have only people who are Miskito living here and throw out everyone else (including us) from Puerto Cabezas. On Sunday, we still had to go to church, but when we went to the guy who drives the bus to pick up the members to bring them to church he said he was told by his boss not to work that day because there was going to be a war. We all thought it was just a rumor and it wasn’t going to happen so we weren’t too worried… until the war broke out!

Sunday it wasn’t that bad, it was just a march and they were getting people riled-up and mad at the government. But on Monday things were calm in the morning but by afternoon we heard gun shots and yelling because the government building is about 3 blocks from our house. We called the Mission president to ask him if we should evacuate but all the transportations were shut down like airplane and bus so there is no way to get out of here.

That morning I was praying for our safety, but these Elders, I swear they don’t have a brain or something. They still wanted to leave the house to go write to our families at the computer café, which was closed when we got there, because there was rioting and everything outside! There we are standing right in the middle of the unrest, me and the two other white boys so everyone around us starts yelling at us. I’m thinking we should get out of here quick but the two stooges want to buy something to eat!? In the mean time people are running around, screaming, throwing rocks and Elder A. is ordering his freaking food, “Yeah, I want three rolls with some soup”. I was saying, “Guys LETS GO”. I can see people turning onto our street with guns and machetes; they are running towards us with police following them. Of course the Elders don’t listen to me. Next thing, a member of the church rides up on his bike and he yells, “Elders you’ve got to get out of here!” So what does the second elder I’m with do … he turns his back and starts ordering his food instead.

Two seconds later the mob with guns, machetes, and all the police cars are coming down the street towards us, so I take off running back to the house and started locking everything up. They, the other Elders are clueless of what just happened and come in, sit down and start to eat. They are talking super loud and laughing and doing all this stupid stuff. I was like “Guys, shut up, shut up!” Standing right outside our wooden window is a man with a machete. These men with machetes are robbers that when there is a war or riot they start looting and take everything they can. The cops started coming down our street next and they are shooting of gas bombs and they shot one right outside our house so the tear-gas starts leaking in, it stings your eyes and throat like crazy, so we had all our fans going and towels over our faces so we don’t breathe it in. The Elders inside are still laughing and joking and being stupid. I thought I was dreaming, all I could think was, “Wow, how could I be with such immature people!!!” The little war/riots lasted three days and then it was over…

I’m almost out of writing time and I got to go! I’m safe, I’m fine now, no worries, but my health isn’t so great though.

But I love you ALL!!!
Elder Buck