Problems with GetText

Hello,

I'm having a problem with GetText. I can't figure out why it's not 
translating and I was hoping someone could suggest something I could 
test. I made the following test program:

<?php
     setlocale(LC_ALL, 'es');
     bindtextdomain('messages', '/home/theingot/public_html/locale');
     textdomain('messages');
     echo "English: About us<br/>";
     echo "Spanish: "._('About us');
     echo "<hr/>";
     phpinfo()
?>

- phpinfo() says that GetText support is enabled.
- The 'About us' is not translated.
- See for yourself: http://theingots.org/test.php
- I've checked that the .po file is in
   /home/theingot/public_html/locale/es/LC_MESSAGES/messages.po
- The file is readable and has a translation for 'About us'.


In addition, gettext *used* to work before, when we were using a 
different server. I don't know what might have changed on the server 
that would keep gettext from working, given what phpinfo() says.

Can anyone suggest something else I should test to isolate the problem?

Btw: I don't have direct control of the server, but I can ask our web 
host to make changes and often they will.

Thanks for the help.

Cheers,
Daniel.