La Huelga

This week, the Department of Ucayali is on strike. A department here in Peru is like a state back in my country. Imagine what would happen if the state of New York went on strike. No teachers in the schools, no doctors in the hospital, not a store open where you could buy food, not a car on the road.

Transportation has come to a halt. We're stuck in Masisea because there are no boats. Doctor can't got to 38 in the truck because people will destroy it and him if they catch him on the road. If you ride a bicycle into town, rocks will be thrown at you. The airport in Pucallpa has been taken over. 60,000 people are marching in protest in the streets every day.

The strike is causing many problems. Businesses are not allowed to be open, motocars are not allowed to drive, no one can make money, no one can buy things like rice and toilet paper, no one can take more money out of the bank.

We're at a standstill. There are lots of problems because the hospital is closed, and all the doctors and nurses are on strike, too.

The word in Spanish for strike is huelga. The word "huelga" has been written in grafitti along with the word "indefinida" and "26 Junio," all over walls and buildings and schools in the city. The stike will go on, we are told, until a compromise is made.

The "h" in "huelga" is silent, and I have had a hard time learning this new word because it has too many vowels, and an odd combination of consonants, and feels like something soft and slippery in my mouth.

There is, as of yet, no sales tax in the Department of Ucayali. It is the poorest department in Peru, and the only one that doesn't yet have a sales tax. The national government of Peru wants to now institute a 20% sales tax on everything bought and sold, from boats to chewing gum.

Thus, the strike. The Ucayali citizens don't want to pay a sales tax, and have said that they will strike until the president of Peru, Alan Garcia, changes his mind.

I'm not usually too interested in politics. But we have families in our health program who haven't had food for two days now. They have sent some of the men folk on a trip to walk 8 hours into the jungle to their community where they have yuca and fish available.

It makes me sad when people don't have food to eat.

In Pucallpa we hear that the members of the Adventist churches are eating "out of the common pot." There are families who are starving, and so the church is organizing meals where everyone eats together and shares what they have to make the food go farther.

I hope the strike ends soon.