Fade to Black.

I have started selling the items I have purchased over the last few months - my 37in. plasma television, the mp3 Sony stereo, the universal DVD player, the swanky dinner ware and glasses I had attained at Copenhagen Furnishings, my DVD's among others.

Last night the Mexican Federales raided our building and robbed and exiled the few American expats that reside in my building - thier belongings 'nationalized'. I was luckily not there - enjoying delicious burritos colorado with Beto. In the dead end street that leads up to my building I had to stand and hear the horror story of an African American who had lived in that building some odd 15 years. The raid was sudden and without mercy - all the expats were told to return to their country with what little they could carry.

I looked up from the foul smelling street at the shattered windows and busted metal doors, the street littered with broken personal objects. Why mine and two anothers were spared I have no idea. Juarez is not a free place any longer so it seems - the police are more brutal and the populace a gang of desperate Anglo hating thieves.

It is only the twelfth of the month and I must either try to hang on until the third of next month or flee with what I can get from selling my belongings.

The air is thick with humid fear.