Friday is movie night here in the jungle. So last weekend we settled in with our popcorn as usual. Around 10pm the dogs started going nuts, and moments later we hear "POLICE! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP! POLICE!"
What??? So we grab flashlights and look out to see who's messing with us. But this was no joke. When they saw the flashlight, they were not happy. "Don't shine that on us! This is the police! Come out with your hands up!!" So I was officially freaked out. Justin stepped out on the (under construction) deck with his hands held high. I stayed inside yelling "you have to show me something so I know you're the police! I am not coming out! Show me something so I know you're police". And they did. They sent a guy upstairs in full fatigues, large automatic weapon in hand. Ok.
He was then followed by three others; two in uniform and one, who we soon figured out was the chief, in plain clothes. Two more stayed downstairs and looked aorund the yard. So we officially had six men with rather intimidating AK47's surrounding us. They started with some basic questions, then went straight to a search. They went through EVERYTHING! Then they seperated us, taking me downstairs and leaving Justin upstairs for the next round of questioning. They went through everything in the kitchen, asked all sorts of questions about who works here, why we're here etc. Eventually they settled down. But apparently upstairs was another story. Justin was getting harrassed about drugs, an airplane that they had supposedly seen in the area, and even a landing strip. All of this was most likely an excuse to come out and go through our stuff and intimidate us.
When they realized that we had nothing (plane and landing strip included) they thanked us for our time and kindly requested a ride back out to the village.