“STRIKE”.... which I think is "huelga" en Espanol

Well, we had a transportation strike today and I never realized how much I have come to lean on the taxi service until I was walking hours at a time to do my daily activities! I feel exhausted from all the walking but definitely this experience deserves a little bit space on my blog for a review. The strike was over gas prices, and to my understanding ALL the transportation people were protesting against the taxes the government is putting on the already extremely high prices. In reality I often wonder how taxi drivers make a living because I can go pretty much across town for about 4 soles, which is less then 2 USD! And I can go any were in all of Arequipa in a Kombi which is 60 centemos, which is pennies!

Anyways I was actually working in a medical clinic today and we risked going out on the roads to run clinic. Despite the fact that we left the compound at 7 am, trying to miss the early morning protests and road blocks, we still hit a few. People had put many big stones in the road, which was our first mild obstacle. It was really surreal because the roads were completely empty of cars. To be honest it really felt like one of those scenes out of a zombie movie, because we were passing herds of people walking peacefully to work, and then all the sudden you come upon a road block of raging protesters smashing glass bottles and throwing rocks at your vehicle. Brian, my boss was brave enough to exit the bus and explain to the protesters that we were a NGO on our way to run a medical clinic and they thankfully let us pass, but there was a second there that I was definitely wisked away in the thrill of what we were going to do next.

The second major thing that happened is a Taxi driver came with his family in his car to our Clinic and there was a huge riot just outside our gates. His wife was actually really sick but the people wouldn’t let her out of the car. When the driver finally got out to help her there was a huge fight and honestly I can’t even tell you exactly what happened next because the swarm of people on this guy drowned my view. We ended up having to go out and retrieve this woman and her daughter and the protesters were so riled up banging there pots and pans and screaming that I don’t even think they realized that what they were protesting against.

In general protesting ranged from barricading road, burning tires in the streets, throwing rocks at any vehicle on the road, clanging pots and pans, waving banners (Oh… I saw one guy marching with a white board over his shoulder), breaking bottles in the street; which really is senseless because they protest in their own neighborhoods.

Anyways that is it for now… I have been walking everywhere and I am exhausted. A things look right now they will still be striking, tomorrow so I need to get rested up for another day of walking!!