Quiet streets, smoky hills

I woke up this morning (Happy Birthday, Mom!) to news that there was a transportation strike. All public transportation was suspended to call attention to the unequal amount of road construction funds allocated to the department of Cochabamba in comparison with the other departments. The strike means that a city dependent on public transport doesn´t have any for the day and many of the roads and bridges in and out of the central city are blocked with logs, large rocks, and at times, buses, as was the case today.

Remember that feeling when you were a kid when you looked out your window to a blanket of white snow or to an early morning phone call in the middle of winter? I got excited like a used to on a snow day, but this day was more like a no taxi, trufi, or bus day, no snow to be found. I thought it meant I didn´t have to work (I like my work and all, but an unexpected free day is always welcome, right?) Lucky for me, though, I´m the only intern in my program that can walk to work, so when I didn´t recieve a call from my office or program, I tested out the streets on foot early this morning to see if I could get to work without meeting a blockade. According to the news, this blockade was peaceful, so my host family was cool with me heading out, as was I.

I have to say that my walks today have been kind of surreal and reflective. At first, I enjoyed the peaceful streets. It´s nice not to have to risk my life crossing each intersection;) or atleast not to have to be as vigilent as normal. After I got over the peacefulness, though, and didn´t run into any unexpected delays, I starting reflecting on who these blockades really effect. First of all, the kids. My sisters and every other kid in Cochabamba today was home from school cause all the schools were closed. There aren´t any school buses here; the kids ride public transport. And to think their education is interrupted by things like blockades when they only get 4.5 hrs. of school per day anyway! How can Bolivian kids expect to compete in a globalizad world when they´re only getting about half the class time as kids in the Global North…? And then my thoughts turned to the working poor and disabled. I saw quite a few bikes, motorcycles, and personal vehicles on the roads today, but you don´t have those unless you have atleast some money. The people that need income the most, the people that make their living selling on the street or with an hourly wage job, likely couldn´t make it to work unless they got up at 5AM to start walking (that is if they´re physically able to walk). So, basically, blockades like we had today cost kids and the working poor more than anyone else. But hey, atleast the roads might get repaired, right? The inequality of such a system is more than frustrating… I worked all day because I could.

So that´s a peak into my reflections for the day. I guess such thoughts have a chance to arise when one gets to walk 80 minutes each day (4 times a day up and down the same street)…

So instead of being blanketed in pollution, the mountains surrounding Cochabamba are blanketed in smoke this evening… In the outskirts of the city, the yearling burning is going on to clear new fields for planting as the rainy season is on its´ way.

Until next time…