Finnula's First Riot!

There were elections here in Nicaragua on Sunday which went mostly peacefully. Daniel Ortega won according to the government reports, but a lot of people feel that he shouldn't have run in the first place and have doubts about whether he actually won. Monday the whole country was ready for any problems (there were none that I know of). Most people that we've talked with were not surprised Ortega won and didn't seem that concerned about it.

However today on our way home from running two quick errands with Finnula during Gustavo's nap time, we got stuck in a huge protest against Ortega that was just starting. At first one lone man who is in support of Ortega was blocking the road. But as the anti-Ortega group grew to over 600 people and traffic backed up all across Managua, a pro-Ortega group also arrived.

We arrived at the same time that the riot police and television crews did. We inched forward to the sound of bottle rockets, until finally we got to the stop light where the action was concentrated. At that point the crowd started to tighten around us -- both people protesting for and against Ortega as well as the police.

I started to get teary and R sprung into action rolling down the window to inform all those around that we had a new born in the car and to please let us by. Surprisingly everyone listened and cleared our path through the crowds. As we drove through the riot police closed behind us and stopped all traffic on the road.

Luckily we are all home safe and sound watching the local news to find out what's going on ... and to see if any of the three news crews that filmed us will show us on the evening news.  

Usually women wait 40 days after giving birth to rest, staying in their house with the baby, not doing anything and eating special foods. This is called "la cuarentena" or the 40 days. Some lady in the grocery store asked me how old she was and was surprised that I am taking her out in public already. I didn't think anything of telling her of course we are out and about ... that was before our adventure this afternoon. What an exciting day for Finnula!

As the crowd closed in around us

Riot police closing the street behind us as we sped away.