never a dull moment

This afternoon we left an hour early for ch'ch. Saturday afternoon traffic is usually extra bad so we wanted to leave plenty of time. After one hour in a taxi, we decided to get out and walk because we were at a complete standstill. We weaved in an out of crowded streets and at one point a very nice man stopped us and warned us that there were gangs up ahead and lots of demonstrations. He didn't tell us that there was tear gas! All of a sudden we saw mobs of people running toward us with their mouths covered, some choking and others vomiting. We immediately began to feel the effects of the tear gas and our eyes and throat were on fire. I could hardly see and had to hold on tight to Darrell, lest I fall over. We started running and stopped to ask a policeman if we were running toward the trouble or far enough away from it. He said if we stayed on a specific street, we should be OK. The gas was just awful and we walked as fast as we could toward the ch'ch. I was so afraid after all that, that the service would be canceled. Thankfully it wasn't. It was like a refuge as we ran in there and were free from the tear gas & mobs outside. We had a lovely service with communion and then everyone left really quickly. Some offered us a ride but we declined and said we'd take a taxi. A young girl from the congregation walked with us. We were only 2 minutes out and saw huge crowds of people screaming and running toward us. We darted into a doorway and about 10 people piled in with us. They said that an old man had been beaten up. When we went out, it started all over again and a guy told us not to go down a certain street because there was a dead person down there. Oh my goodness. We were turned away from 3 different streets that we tried to go down. It was freezing cold and there were NO taxis anywhere. We finally got our friend delivered to her ride and found a taxi, only to get out immediately when he told us it would cost us 20 dinars! (5 X what it should) We walked some more and eventually found an honest taxi who took us home. What a wild afternoon!! I wish I could have stopped to get some pictures but it was too dangerous and we were running. I did grab one which I'll post here. It just shows rocks everywhere and how they dug them up from the railroad tracks. The streets were strewn with trash and piles of burning garbage and broken glass everywhere. What a mess. Things are definitely not settled here but we feel in no danger at all. Life goes on. Just never want to get caught in tear gas again!