Contingency Plans
Aug
19
2009

My hand twists the tank valve shut. She is visibly nervous. I watch her SPG drop 50 bar with each bubbly breath. The needle pegs at zero. Red zone. Out of air. Slash throat. She grabs her buddy’s alternate air source and tugs. It doesn’t budge. She jerks down again. Nothing. It’s snagged on her buddy’s strap. Her eyes widen with panic. My left hand twists her valve open. I can feel the air pulsing down the tubes to her convulsing lungs. “Okay?” I signal. She breaths deeply, rapidly. I lock my arms on hers and look in her wide eyes. “Breathe… breathe…” The bubbles slow. She’s shaking, but I’m not letting her go anywhere. Not until she’s ready. “Okay,” » read more «

Sobriety Strikes Roatan
Nov
30
2008

For the first time in two years, Roatan has sobered up. As opposed to the time-honored tradition in America of getting absolutely blitzkrieged on booze whilst enduring the endless onslaught of CNN poll results on Election Day, Honduras prohibits all alcohol sales over election weekends. Given the volatile mix of machetes and machismo that permeates Honduran culture, the separation of Booze and State is probably a good idea. Between the irate Mainlanders barricading the rain-soaked streets and the Gringos drowning their frustrations while “trapped” in the bars, the continued sale of alcohol during the RECO protests earlier this month fueled island tensions to a stupid level. The game of politics is already mankind at our lowest; better to leave alcohol » read more «

Rain, Riots, Racism, and RECO
Nov
24
2008

Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you got til it’s gone? November 4, 2008. After one month of depressingly endless rain and wind sinking Roatan to the mud-coated economic low that typifies the island rainy season, things are finally starting to look up. An eclectic international group of expatriates is intensely huddled around a television watching the results of the United States election trickle in. The excitement is palpable: inside, American international policy is finally about to make a profound transition that will hopefully mend the shattered relations between the United States and the rest of the world, while outside the wind is relenting and weather is finally making a turn for the better. When » read more «