lets have a strike!

I guess when ecuadorians decide to do something, they really put their hearts into it. It really doesn´t matter what it is, drinking, partying, working, or in this case, striking. We don´t have just one national strike in Ecuador right now, but two. First, the teachers are striking because their benefits are being cut and many of the teachers that have put in the years are set to get a pay cut, some of them get their salaries cut in half. So basically the teachers in the large cities (Quito and Guayaquil) are striking and all the schools around the nation fall in line, usually. Some schools are teachers in Guaranda have crossed the line and have resumed school, others haven´t, especially in San Lorenzo. I think that some of the teachers are enjoying it because they get some extra vacation time but who knows how long they will be on strike. This means that I can´t work with the schools doing gardens and environmental education...which is a large part of my work, but it gives me more time to work on other projects so I guess their is an upside to everything.
The other strike involves the indigenous population, who are striking over water rights because the government wants to privatize water, or so is the rumor. The indigenous people are blocking the roads, especially near cities in the Oriente, where there are lots of groups. Honestly, I am not sure what to make of all of this but people rallying together against ¨the man¨is a pretty common theme in latin america, especially ecuador. We´ll see where it goes from here.
Oh, by the way, in addition to me duties in San Lorenzo, apparently I am a part-time firefighter as well. A few weeks ago I was tending to the garden I have at my house when my host-mom´s sister tells me to grab a shovel and help with a small fire that was on a hill in San Lorenzo. I wasn´t too shocked as most of the farmers here burn their land after they harvest their crops, in this case, corn. But this fire wasn´t exactly a controlled one burning just the intended area. So I rushed up the hill to join my fellow san lorenzens and put out the fire. The closest homes to the fire didn´t have hoses that could help put it out so we took our shovels and smacked down the flames while putting dirt on the others. The fires weren´t that big, but I would like to exaggerate the fact because it makes me sound like a real badass to put out blazing flames with a shovel and dirt. Anyways, the good part was that these fires were happening around 6pm in the afternoon so the cold of the night soon put them all out. That is about how exciting things get in San Lorenzo, you have to start fires to get people really excited about something.