Saturday, December 10, 2011

"a tragic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time"

Written December 6, 2011

I have been debating what I want to say in this blog, or whether I even want to post anything about it for the past week. But, I have so much on my mind that I figured writing about it might make me see things more clearly, and all of you deserve to know what has been going on here in Honduras.

Sunday night, I checked my e-mail before going to bed at about 10pm. I was surprised to see an e-mail about a security incident that had apparently taken place that afternoon. The only information that was shared with us volunteers at that time was:

“Today a PCV was injured in an attempted armed robbery on the Carolina bus between San Pedro and La Esperanza around 12:00pm today. Our volunteer is ok and receiving care in San Pedro. We have multiple staff with the PCV right now. We should have more information tomorrow. Please send your prayers/positive thoughts towards SPS. Thank you.”

The next message I received was actually from another PCV who had received a little more information about the injured volunteer. The PCV spread the word that the injured volunteer was out of surgery and seemed to be doing ok. So it wasn’t until that time, about 10am, that I learned the identity of the injured volunteer. Attached to that e-mail was also an article that ran in the newspaper, so I learned some of the details of the accident - but nothing actually from Peace Corps admin.

All morning and afternoon volunteers were calling and text messaging each other trying to get more information about the accident, as well as tying to decide how they felt about the situation.

It wasn’t until 1pm that afternoon that we had any updates from PC Honduras, which basically summarized the article that had been printed in the newspaper and told us that we should be there for each other and that we should feel free to call anyone in the office if we felt that we need to talk to someone about what happened - as well as the following:

“…at this point this appears to be a tragic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

We finally got a message from our Country Director at 6:30pm, who was currently out of the country at a training-the-trainer workshop. In her message, our CD explained that she had been in communication with the staff in Honduras and that she was very pleased with how they were responding to the situation “It’s marvelous to see staff handle the emergency situation with such a high level of professionalism, competence and compassion.” I don’t want to copy and paste her entire e-mail, but the gist of it is that if any of us volunteers need support after this incident, than the staff is here for us because “supporting safe, healthy, and productive volunteer experiences for you is our number-one job!”

So what happened to the volunteer? She was riding a bus between San Pedro Sula and La Esperanza, and at about noon, half an hour after leaving San Pedro, three guys got up with guns and announced that they were robbing the bus. Another passenger on the bus had a gun and apparently did not want to be robbed, causing a gun fight to break out, with many people being injured in the process - the volunteer being one of them. She was shot in the leg, and transported to the hospital in San Pedro for surgery.

________

For a little refresher/backstory -
About two months ago, we had a lot of policy changes here in Honduras because of “security incidents” and the need to make volunteer safety a higher priority. We were advised about our behavior, which was apparently to “college” for admin - staying out too late, drinking, and walking around large cities at night, things along those lines. These are all things that Peace Corps had deemed high risk factors that us as volunteers could control. So, if we were assaulted because we were out at two in the morning, it was basically our fault because we could have prevented it if we would have just stayed in.

HOWEVR, now we have a security incident that in no way resembles that - a volunteer was on a bus in the middle of the day and got shot - BUT peace corps is calling it a “tragic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Where my problem comes in with all of this, in my opinion, is the fact that Peace Corps is treating this incident as if the volunteer had been in a car accident or something more along those lines - something that was completely out of Peace Corps or Honduras‘s control. But, no, she was on a bus… this is a matter of Honduras being the most dangerous country in the world (that is not currently in a war), but it is as if Peace Corps Honduras doesn’t want to own up to that. In one of the e-mials, admin said “If we learn anything that would result in a need to change policy or travel guidance we will communicate that straight away.” So, as a result of this accident, their response is that they might just need to make another policy change. It seems to me that this is their response to everything - make another rule or policy change that will help to avoid situations like this in the future, but for this particular incident, I don’t think there is really anything that can be done. People have to travel in and out of San Pedro Sula and/or La Esperanza. There is no way to avoid that - we already have been instructed to make sure and not travel at night, especially in and out of San Pedro or Tegus, and this volunteer was certainly not - it was noon on a Sunday.

To make this situation worse, it was brought to volunteers attention the following day that there had actually been two other assaults on the same bus company over that week - but Peace Corps had not informed any volunteers of these incidents.

My question is, what can be done at this point? We live in the most dangerous country in the world that is not currently in a war and the Peace Corps needs to realize that and take responsibility for what happens in this country. Since my training class arrived in out sites, we have heard rumors about Peace Corps Honduras getting shut down if there is “one more serious incident.” But what is “serious” in their eyes? Is it going to take someone dieing for them to realize the gravity of the security situation here in Honduras. I certainly do not want Honduras to get shut down because I am not ready to pack up and go home, but at this point I am just a little disappointed with their reaction to this serious event. We had a volunteer shot, and not a single e-mail had a hint of remorse, and Peace Corps is blaming it on being in “the wrong place at the wrong time.” What if that bullet had hit the volunteer two feet higher and got her in the heart or hit her femoral artery instead of the leg - what would Peace Crops be doing/saying then.

I love living in Honduras and at times forget how dangerous it really is here, but having a friend of mine get shot opened my eyes. And I think it is time for Peace Corps Honduras to open their eyes a little bit as well.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Coral,

    While I agree that the situation here in Honduras is serious and scary, with this particular incident the "wrong place wrong time" comment is frustrating to hear, but true. As another volunteer said, "Honduras has 'wrong place wrong time' written all over it." No one could have predicted what happened on that bus and I think we are all grateful that it wasn't worse. Hindsight is 20/20. I've heard of bad incidents about various bus companies that other volunteers swear by (fully knowing the same information I do).

    What happened to that volunteer is very unnerving, but not because of what PC Honduras has or hasn't done. It is unnerving because it happened at noon on a Sunday and is an example of how the violence in this country is escalating. I think PC/ Honduras was right in chastising us for our "college-like" behavior, because staying out late at night, especially when drinking, in the murder capital of the world is also not "owning up" to the gravity of the situation here.

    Honduras is dangerous, what happened has put all of us here on edge because it made the reality here all the more real. It was a close call that hit too close, but we've all known about the risks. (That security training about what to do in a bus assault my training class had in our first few months is something I still think about whenever I travel around this country.)

    All that being said, you are absolutely justified in calling out Peace Corps on what they're doing and how we communicate about these things. I don't want to leave this country yet either, but I think, along the lines of what you're saying, it would be best for all of us if both Staff and Volunteers started talking more frankly and openly about security here.

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  2. Hey! I'm a volunteer from Guatemala and I just wanted to thank you for writing about this. We are experiencing a very similar situation here and I think this could have very easily happened to one of us, probably with a similar reaction from admin.

    Today we received a series of ambiguous communications from PC Guate admin about our next training group being on hold for the moment, travel to Honduras being prohibited over the holidays, etc, without explanation. I know admin will get around to explaining it to us, but thanks for posting this publicly and giving us the info we need in order to understand and process what's going on.

    I feel that the bottom line is that Peace Corps in country takes an attitude which- perhaps to protect us from psychological concern, perhaps to avoid the enormous upheaval of closing a post, certainly in some small part because they simply love their jobs and the work we do - is to ignore reality.

    That reality: a good portion of the risks to volunteers in this region are not controllable. But who would stay on or support what we do here if they said to us, frankly and head-on, "X number of you will be robbed in a bus assault in your time here, outside of your reasonable control or anticipation." They don't talk to us that way. They talk to us about being vigilant and not going out at night and not drinking.

    These are good and necessary steps; but time is proving they are not sufficient steps to keep all of us physically and psychologically safe. That's the reality.

    Meaning, just to live and do our work, we may have to take risks which are getting too high. What else can you conclude when stats are still rising, most incidents happen out of site, and at least half of those are categorized by Peace Corps as being "unavoidable"?

    The recent security policy changes on a Latin-American scale (expressed in a communication to us from Carlos Torres in September) don't address this fundamental issue, and it’s unfortunate a volunteer had to get caught in an assault for them to take an honest look at things. Better site selection/prep, accountability to counterparts, more site visits are all good things for a variety of reasons, but they are only tangentially related to the principal risk of travel.

    Some policies may even aggravate this risk by giving volunteers more need and incentive to get away from site (here I'm referring to the mandatory two-year homestays- since I’ve been in site way more!).


    Ultimately I have to sympathize with admin – it’s a hard position to be in, but I do still feel it’s necessary that they communicate more honestly with us. As hard as it would be for them to say it, it would be good to hear them admit that there are significant risks that neither we nor they can do anything about…

    Anyway, thanks again for sharing. We'll be thinking of you guys and hoping for the best for everyone!

    Steph

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  3. Hello. I just wanted to thank you for your blog and for sharing the information about the incident. As a Peace Corps Invitee that was slated to be in Honduras this upcoming February, it helps me tremendously to know why my training group was cancelled. I wish you and your fellow volunteers the best as you finish your service and hope that a positive solution can be found in this turbulent situation. Happy Holidays.

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  4. Ya, we were finally updated yesterday and it looks like Honduras, Guat and El Salvador are all in the same situation. We are suspending the 2012 group of trainees. I think it was a good next step for Honduras to take - but now i'm just really wondering what is going to happen next!!!! Good luck to you guys too... and as for the training groups that just got cancelled - i hope you guys get put back on the list for another region!!!!

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