Children’s Ministries during a Bus Strike
By Julie Noble*
Julie Noble has the responsibility of training short-term missionaries in Oruro, Bolivia.
On Thursday 15th I took a minibus to the Young Offender Centre and hanging inside was a sign saying that bus fares had gone up with immediate effect (adult fare by 33%, student fare by 50% and child fare by 100%). I paid the increased fare but was puzzled by the fact that there had been no protests about the (long overdue) price rise. Most people refused to pay the increased price and by Monday drivers were charging the old prices again.
However, on Tuesday night, talks about the price rise between the drivers, students and neighbourhood representatives having failed, news came through of an indefinite strike and blockade by the minibus drivers from Wednesday morning. Transport strikes happen fairly frequently but normally only affect the town centre and start about 7am. This time the minibuses were in place at strategic points very early in the morning and parked so close together that you could not even pass between them.
I walked to the young offender centre at 8am for my classes with boys sentenced for drug trafficking and then headed down past the old coach terminal expecting to be able to take a taxi to the airport further down Villaroel. There was nothing except blockades every four blocks or so. I rang one of the Angel Tree staff to ask what they were thinking of doing about collecting the children and reported that the blockades extended well beyond the ring road. After crossing the ring road, I did manage to get a motorbike taxi to the airport where a Latin Link colleague had arrived from Santa Cruz. The number 7 (Braveheart) green minibuses were blocking the roads back towards town from there but we managed to get a taxi across to the road to Potosi, a few blocks below the Tagarete bridge. From there we walked, crossing blockades, towards town. A group of men with large wooden poles passed us heading out of town. A few blocks above the ring road we found a motorbike taxi and a quadbike which took us to my flat.
During the morning, there had been confrontations between university students and the minibus drivers. Many vehicles had been damaged with windows broken and tyres slashed as neighbourhood committees tried to unblock the streets. The University buildings round the corner from my house had been attacked and the windows smashed, and the students had retaliated by attacking the headquarters of the San Cristobal Drivers’ Union. Very few children made it to Angel Tree because of the lack of transport.
In the evening, I went for a meal with our visitor and the Strider at a steak and burger restaurant on the main street. The food was good but while we were eating a mob armed with poles ran up the main street causing shutters to be lowered quickly on shops. The mob was driven back with tear-gas which filtered into the restaurant. A little later they returned, and tear-gas was again used to disperse them and that time we felt it more strongly in the restaurant. It started to rain very heavily (we have had excessive rain during the last two weeks after a very dry “rainy” season) and we headed home crossing streets like rivers. The area around the Angel Tree Centre had been tear-gassed too. The local education authority gave schools the option of having online classes while the unrest continued and many city centre schools took it.
On Thursday the strike and confrontations continued but without blockades, so it was possible to get taxis to move around. The Strider and I were able to submit his papers at Immigration and after over six hours there his visa was issued. I had left him there over lunchtime to go and take J. lunch. It was very muddy around her house after all the rain. During the day there were marches by the students and the drivers and confrontations continued with dynamite thrown. Although there were some minibuses working in the morning these quickly withdrew for fear of the vehicles being damaged. There were only seven children at Angel Tree with no minibuses working and the risk of conflict, so it was decided to shut on Friday and get someone in to do maintenance on the building over the weekend.
The drivers have taken the decision to continue the indefinite strike until they achieve the price rise.
*Julie Noble is a missionary with Latin Link. LAM partners with Latin Link in several projects and programs. Latin Link enable men and women in Europe to work in Latin America.
