La Manifestación

Today was another hospital day and this time more students decided to come.  Cassandra (from near Portland, OR), Liz (from Philly), Josh (Denver) and I met up in front of the school at 6:30am to walk to the bus stop.  As always, we took a microbus to the rotonda to catch the big bus to Totonicapán.  When we got on the bus they only charged us 3.00 quetzales each instead of the usual 5.50Q.  I didn't think too much of it, I thought maybe it was our lucky day.  As it turned out, quite the opposite.

We arrived about 30 mins down the road at Cuatro Caminos (Four Roads) where the bus stopped, turned around, and turned off the engine.  The driver said we had to get out, cross the street, and walk "como cinco cuadras (like five blocks)," to catch another bus, with no further explanation.  So we did that, along with everyone else getting off the buses.  We were confused as to why this stretch of road was closed off, so I asked a man on the side of the road.  At first he just repeated that we had to walk to get to transportation, but this time it was 3 or 4 kilometers.  Finally he told us that it was because there was a manifestación, a protest, that the road was closed off, but that if we walked past Las Cruces, where the protest was being held, we should be able to find transportation to Toto. 

Walking toward the protest at about 7am

It was probably a kilometer before we reached Las Cruces.  There was a stage with large speakers where the protest leaders were giving speeches.  The people there were mostly farmers and indigenous people who were protesting the high cost of electricity.  Apparently, in that area households are paying an outrageous amount for enough electricity to light only a bulb or two, stemming from last year's very low rainfall.  Even after this year's record-breaking rains, they're still paying the higher cost.  There was such an energy there by the stage, with people holding signs and vendors taking advantage of the large gathering to sell food and hot drinks on that foggy morning.  It was encouraging to see that the people here really try to organize and fight for their rights rather than remaining apathetic toward injustice, which would be easy to do when you feel ignored by your government.

The protest at Cuatro Caminos

Cuatro caminos is a very important section of the highway because all transport goes through there to reach different towns and cities in the region - trucks carrying goods to market, buses with travelers, commuters, etc.  Seems like the protesters have a clever strategy, but it's not the government or the electric company that ends up suffering the most, it's the regular people who are just trying to make a living.

We continued walking down the road toward Toto, expecting to be able to catch some kind of bus along the way.  We definitely saw a lot of buses, but they were all stopped and empty along the side of the road.  Occasionally we'd get passed by a pickup full of people.  After maybe an hour and a half of walking we decided this was a fruitless journey, and even if we did make it to the hospital, we'd have to leave almost immediately to make it back to school in time for classes.  So we turned around and walked all the way back to where the bus had dropped us off.......but the buses were gone.  The protesters had extended the road block even further down the road, which added about another 30 mins to our walk.  Finally we got a bus and made it back home at about 11:30am.  Enough time to take a little nap and have lunch before class.

Right before we gave up and started walking back

I talked to my host mother, Marta, about the manifestación and she said that Guatemala is a country of many protests, but with little results.  There were two other protests around Xela just this week, one for children's education, and one for access to healthcare and medicine.