Reality

Nothing prepares you for the reality of seeing some one being beaten…and I hope nothing ever does.

After 2 days in the office talking to young people and organisations about the reality of violence here in Tegucigalpa, we took a late evening walk with some of them into town. People are naturally so protective here so we had spent most our time indoors, so it was nice to get out in the air and take in the beauty of the city views and chat with our friends here. As we walked past the football stadium we heard whistles and then saw a young person being chased by 3 policemen. As they caught up to him he slipped and fell right into the fist of one of them. They then proceeded to hold him and beat him very hard over his chest and face, before leading him away out of view.

The young people we were with simply shrugged and said that thats the state repression we have been telling you about…and walked on calmly, which eirly showed to me how this is now the norm.

This is not the first time I have seen people beaten by the army or police, but what struck me about it here was the sheer normality of it. The sounds (that deep echoing sound when someone is hit in the chest) and the random brutality of it naturally shocked me and LG so much, yet the world just carried on around us.