Ahh.. The Pitter Patter of Jackboots in the Morning

This morning, at around 4:30 am, we were torn from our slumber by a sudden, loud and assertive BANG-bang-BANG on our door. Jesse jumped up quickly, tossed on some shorts and went into the living room. By the time he got there, the would-be visitors were banging again and yelling "Police." Somewhat out of it from the dream that he was still halfway in, Jesse went to the door and cracked it open, asking what they wanted. He faced six people in full military garb - five men, one woman and three machine guns - who didn't appear to want to explain the purpose of their visit. The group started moving into the house and Jesse asked them to wait while he made sure that everyone was properly dressed. They politely obliged, but swiftly moved into the living room as soon as the bedroom door was shut after Jesse asked me to get dressed.

While I got dressed and Rachel wandered into the living room, asking what was going on, the commander of the little brigade demanded our passports. Of course, Jesse had left his passport in the office, making for a few tense moments, as he imagined how they would react when he realized that he didn't have what they were demanding (they ended up accepting Jesse's driver's license). One soldier kind of poked his head into the room while they looked over the identification, asked us questions about where we came from and wrote some stuff down. Apparently satisfied after about five minutes, they left as quickly as they came, moving on to the apartment across the hall.

Obviously this was a first for us. While we had heard about the police "sweeps" in the night, we had not yet had the opportunity to experience it first hand. Rachel thought it was kind of fun and new - Jesse and I found it new, but not fun. After the adrenaline worked its way out of our systems, we all settled down for the rest of our night's sleep.

Here's a picture of a traditional military man w/ machine gun. Jesse didn't think it would be a good idea if I asked the people this morning if I could take their picture for our blog.