Strike!

The Market - with no fruits and vegetables left

Last week all transport went on a strike. Apparently the lawmakers in Rabat decided to legislate tougher laws on drivers when they hit a person and cause injury or death. Every time I heard the proposed penalties, they were different, so I really don't know what the truth of the matter was. Since those in the transport business are the most likely ones to hit someone, they went on strike. One of their concerns was that people might run in front of vehicles just to collect the lucrative bribes that drivers would pay to avoid the jail time.

It really is a scary thought for all of us drivers. People constantly step out in the road directly in the way of traffic without ever looking.

A transportation strike really paralyzes a country in which very few people own cars. People rely on public transportation to do just about everything. After a few days of this, food started running out in the market and prices began to sky-rocket (since we are in the hills and almost nothing is grown locally, all our food is trucked in). By the end of the week, there were absolutely no fruit and vegetables left, which is what people eat here (vs. canned or processed foods). The city also ran out of fuel. It was a funny feeling driving around almost on empty and realizing it's pointless to go shopping because there's nothing there anyway! And a friend of ours had a visitor who almost did not make it back to Casa to catch his plane out of the country.

But the strike ended on Friday and things are back to normal. Apparently the lawmakers and drivers reached some sort of compromise. Better go eat a veggie.