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An unsettling day. My walk to and from the MFA takes me past the Ministry of Justice and a very large courthouse which always has crowds of small groups of plaintiffs/defendants/litigants of all different social groupings and so it was at 7.50 when I walked in this morning. Very different when I left work shortly after midday. Still the same groups but all pushed away from the central access by soldiers who had two large trucks and a 'paddy-wagon' parked immediately outside the columns that define the main entrance. I was ordered into the road by a soldier waving his gun in my general direction. I assumed that some at least of the 20 rebels were being processed inside.
I got home then walked into town where a ute with 6 soldiers in the back were outside Shop Rite, stuck in traffic. The soldier looking at me had what looked like a tear gas launcher on his lap. He was not smiling and there was tension in the air. No problem, I bought my bread, went home, ate lunch and went to work. My classroom is still being used for training so we were downstairs in the storeroom type place when an explosion sounded so close that Laolao screamed. Saturnin, a lovely, big guy from the Sports Ministry went out to have a look and was nearly knocked over by people running downhill. He returned saying he could see nothing so I started playing Buzz again. It's non-stop work you know.
No more disturbances so after the lesson I asked the cabinet group what had happened. "A grenade" said Hanta, who is lovely but not the most reliable judge (see her previous explanation of why water drops from a Jacaranda tree). Brutto, Secretary General in the Sports Ministry was far more circumspect. "Who knows" he said. "It was very close by so it may have been something in the barracks next door." End of story but after 3 days of calm during the 'attempted coup' today the feeling is tense.
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