Strikes and Rainy Days

It’s another rainy day in Salvador, and the bus drivers are always on strike (but will hopefully come to an agreement this afternoon). I’m drinking coffee while trying to motivate myself to get all of my homework done – you would think that it wouldn’t be too hard with this weather – but instead I’ve been skimming through my roommates’ Lonely Planet Brazil book and daydreaming about all the places I have to see!

There is this one place, in the Amazon, which is well known because once a month, during the full moon, the force of the tides create an enormous wave where the river meets the ocean that rages through the amazon – it’s called the Pororoca for “terrifying sound”. It has a height of up to four metres high, and surfers can ride the same wave for over thirteen minutes! 

Source: http://www.academus.com.br/group/amazonia-do-brasil/forum/topics/pororoca

I still haven’t been surfing since my trip a few weeks ago (at least I have the excuse that it’s been raining) but that hasn’t stopped other surfers from getting out and riding the huge waves we have been having because of the weather. There are even big waves where I am living, in the Porto da Barra, which under normal conditions is known for it’s calm waters. I’ve been running down the seawalk more often lately, watching the surfers, and marvelling at how they manage to swerve the jagged rocks that seem to pop up right in their paths! Of course, there are places you can go that don’t have as many igneous intrusions (geology term for type of rock), but for the serious surfers out there, they need to find the biggest waves, never mind the risk.

My attempt at surfing while in Pipa

It’s really depressing to think that I have almost a full week of vacation because of the strike, but because all the buses in the state are on strike, I can’t even take a bus to another city and go travel! The strike is actually happening all across the country, even in São Paulo (although there it’s the trains on strike) but the strike in Salvador is the most widespread – it affects over a million people who use the public transport system. 

View of bus stop in Salvador during strike
Source: meutransporte.blogspost.com.br

I’ve also heard rumors that the bus fare might go up another 50 centavos (25 cents) from 2.50 to 3.00 reais, making Salvador the most expensive for bus fare compared to all the other cities I’ve been to in Brazil. My Chilean roommate told me that the increase in bus fare in Chile was the original motive for a huge student protest that happened a few years ago. There was actually an interesting post on facebook comparing Chile to Brazil, stating that in Chile students protest for better quality education, whereas Brazil students protest to legalize marijuana (and just last week there was the 3^rd annual “March for Marijuana” walk here in Salvador). However, it is true that the Law Faculty at UFBA went on Strike for roughly a week at the beginning of my exchange for reasons such as poor infrastructure and poor quality of education, and achieved some positive results out of it. And the more I hear about and see strikes in action, both in Quebec and here in Brazil, the more I feel that strikes are a very effective way to put pressure on the government in order to effect change. It makes sense to think that the Law students went on strike here because they are more aware of their rights than any other student at UFBA, but the rest of the students at UFBA have as much of a reason to be on strike right now as they did! It’s frustrating going to class and finding that the professor decided to cancel it because most of the students went on a field trip, but neglected to tell the rest of us that there wouldn’t be class this week. And the teacher who teach for only an hour and a half when the class is supposed to be three hours long. There is a countless number of situations here I could talk about that should not be acceptable in any respectable university.

Not only this, but there is lots of talk that the teachers here are going to go on strike as well, for higher wages. I’m not very sure of the wages of a professor who teaches at a public university, but from personal observations I can say that most of them drive nice cars and have IPhones and Mac computers. Even still, all over the country, professors are on strike, and UFBA (Universidade Federal da Bahia) is one  of the few places left not on strike. It’s a subject ofdiscussion among students. The teachers say that it isn’t going to happen, but at the same time it’s an uncertain situation. One thing is for sure: if UFBA goes on strike, I’ll be making an early trip to Macchu Pichu.