Living through History

Today started out normal.

Went to school. Took my final exam. Had snack time. Returned to class to plan our presentation for tomorrow.

Then, we heard there was chaos in Quito.

All 17 of us huddled around the radio listening to how President Correa was in the hospital, the borders were closed, and the police and military had shut down the airport. We were let out of school early because of a possible military coup happening 30 minutes away in Quito.

It's hard to figure out exactly what is going on, partially because there's a couple sides to the story and partially because the news is in Spanish (also almost all of the media is also government controlled). What I have gathered is that yesterday, Congress passed a law that would cut bonuses and delay promotions for the police and military. In protest, rogue military/ police seized the airports and shut them down. They surrounded Independence Square and the Presidential Palace in Quito and started a rally/protest/general mayhem. When the president tried to address them, they threw tear gas at him, and so he fled to a hospital for sanctuary. The city is in total chaos.

I knew something was really wrong when on the way home from school at noon time, there was tons of traffic, the buses were crowded, and all the shop owners were locking up. It's not as though this is new to Ecuador- the 3 Presidents preceding the current one have been ousted by the people, however the people here weren't willing to keep their shops open while the police were on strike and not around to provide protection. My classes for tomorrow have been canceled, and essentially I'm on lockdown in my house.

Now it's just a waiting game to see if things calm down and control is regained, or things get worse. I'm hoping for the latter because Sunday I am supposed to head to Quito before leaving for the rain forest on Monday. Right now that's not possibly because the major highway is closed and the province borders are closed. Hopefully things will calm down enough that we'll be able to get to the rain forest because I'm super pumped for it.

If nothing else, today was full of excitement and makes for a good story.