The Strike.

The government isn’t subidising the transport enough. So the taxis, and buses, are on strike in the whole of Nicaragua. You do have to feel for them – they’re already driving clapped-out old US school bus rejects and the ones I have experienced do a bloody good job of navigating stony dirt roads. There doesn’t seem to be an end in sight at the moment and it’s been over a week. Sometimes it’s hard to find out what’s going on cos my language is bad, sometimes it’s hard cos there’s no electricity, sometimes it’s hard cos everyone has a different story. I was watching the news a few days ago, and the whole strike seemed to be over – then the fast-talking uncle came in and laughed at me for watching the government’s channel. Ha ha he said, you won’t get the truth from there. Ah. Silly naïve Rebecca, expecting a news programme to just give me the news. Sure enough, an hour later on another channel – no end in sight. And it’s quite a claustrophobic feeling in small a place like Yali not to have buses leaving and entering, but more than that, the price of food is going up and in cities they are worried they’ll be running out. Because, much food is transported on top of the buses, and also when there is a transport strike they block roads with buses so that no-one can get through – private or public. And the cargo are on strike too. When I explained this to Luke last week he said “So, if you travel, you’re a scab”. Pretty much, yes. But here in Yali we’re surrounded by farms so I guess we’re okay for milk, bananas and cow meat for the time being.

I wrote the above a few days ago, and things have got quieter here and more bunged – -up and violent everywhere else since. And today I had yet another lesson in politics at the cooperative wherein I discovered that transport is already subsidised, and the guys that own the franchises get alot of money and don’t spend all of it on the buses. A fair bit goes in their pockets. So the bus drivers aren’t seeing the benefits of the subsidies, but it’s their bosses that are instigating strikes. So it´s complicated, unsurprisingly. And I’m certain I’m not doing it justice. Gustavo cheerfully adds that the guy who has dropped in to give us the latest news on the strike (“It continues”) fought for the contras, so they fought against each other in the war. But now they´re chatting about a transport strike. And I feel sure that while chatting cheerfully about how they used to fight against each other, Gustavo asked him what he got paid off with after the war and he said “a pair of white trousers”. How far away from my reality am I?????

Oh, yes, and this came just after an in-depth conversation about how Elton John´s music was brilliant in the seventies and has gone downhill since. Which machetes through cultural divides cos we can all agree about that – and that Bennie and the Jets really does kick some ass.