Friday, June 5, 2009 - The natives are getting REALLY restless
So, the protests are still going strong.
There are thousands of angry natives (who really are natives... they use blow guns, and bows and arrows). They have been blocking the only road into our city from the coast for the past month and a half. They've also been blocking the same road out of our city to the next city, Yurimaguas. There they really have it worse off because they have no road out on the other side, only the river. They have the petroleum, but they can't get chicken, cookstove gas and the price of the basic necessities is through the roof! Chicken which is normally S/7 a kilo ($1/lb) is S/29+ a kilo ($5lb). A tank of cookstove gas is normally S/33 ($10) is now S/150 ($50)!
We are better off, but still not by much, and who knows for how long. The city has run out of gasoline here. The gas stations are out! Tarapoto (where we live) is run on gasoline. They'd been rationing electricity, turning it off at nights and such. They will soon have to cut our electricity completely, as it is produced by big generators run on gasoline and the reserves have come to an end (most likely tonight... I hope I get this posted in time!).
Today, the police arrived...
And some of them will not go home to their families.
Many natives have also died for their cause.
Here's the yahoo news article: 16 Killed in Peruvian Amazon Clashes (we have heard 22 killed... so far, we've heard rumors of possibly hundreds of casualties as the natives' casualties have not been counted before being hauled away)
I have candles ready, but it's late enough, we'll just sleep tonight, and figure out the rest tomorrow.
We are conserving gasoline, and the cookstove's tank of gas (that's running out in the city too & getting pretty expensive).
If we do run out of power, we won't have access to computer and possibly no phone for awhile. But we'll do our best to keep in touch.
If we needed to, we could fly out.
We don't feel in any direct danger.
In a time of crises, people's hearts are often more sensitive to the LORD... pray that we would be shrewd harvesters!
Sometimes things work themselves out faster than expected and tomorrow might be a whole different story! (though that seems somewhat unlikely at this point...)
The post I posted yesterday about peace, was what I shared at our women's meeting yesterday... I feel it was really a message directly from the LORD. I keyed in on the situation here instead of the global aspect of peace in the Middle East. God's help for us is perfectly timely as ought to be expected.
God is so good!
I am my Beloved's and He is mine.
Can you find Tarapoto? It should be to your right, follow the yellow (brick road) toward the ocean (left) to find Bagua Grande where all the action is right now. Then if you follow that same road all the way through Olmos down to Chiclayo, and then go south straight down the coast to Trujillo... then you've gone our route to Trujillo. Use the little hand to adjust the map so that you can see the cities mentioned.
Your situation made MSNBC.com news so we've been tracking their version of the situation in Peru. I'd be curious if it matches what you know about the situation.
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