Learning Hard Lessons; Teacher’s Strike

We haven’t written much lately. Having gotten into a pattern (what we consider a rut) of walking the same streets and going to the lending library to check email and see some friends, we decided we weren’t making the most of our time. We needed to look elsewhere for that elusive “place to be” and “exciting challenge” that we seem to be missing. So we bought some airplane tickets back to Houston for the end of May.

Before leaving, we encountered the tent city of the teacher’s strike in the center of Oaxaca, as they used their numbers to obstruct business and raise awareness of their struggle.

It seemed to us that the teachers unnecessarily inconvenienced everyone trying to do business in the vicinity of the zócalo, and the traffic snarls were much worse than usual.

There was tension in the air, but mostly the teachers were being ignored, especially by any tourists that happened along in the off-season of May.

Now that we are back in the US, it appears that we left at just the right time to miss all the animosity. The Oaxacan state government refused to meet the teacher’s demands, and sent in riot police to disburse them on June 14th. These pictures were sent to us by a friend in Oaxaca.