Tuesday 2/26-Tempers Flare

Tuesday started off with a little nervousness, but with the news that the leaders of the taxis strikers were meeting with Ministers of the government at 10 am. We were nervous because if the negotiations went badly we would be stuck at school with the kids as the city broke out with riots. As it turned out the Ministers agreed to drop the price of gas from 600fca a liter to 594 cfs, when it had been at 584cfa just a few weeks ago. To clarify gas here is sold by the liter. It is over $5 a gallon and they agreed to drop it less than one cent. It was completely insulting and not taken well. Gas/oil is one of Cameroon's largest export and it is being made to expensive for the people who live here to afford.
The strike was now becoming more about other problems here. Food prices are skyrocketing for certain stable things like milk, flour, and oil. It hurts mine and Pete's pocket a bit, but to the locals it is making their lives even harder and many cannot afford to keep food with any nutritional value on the table. Cameroonians have been trained to just take it from the government-which has been the same "president" for over 20 years. They were seeing Kenya and Chad and how civil unrest gets results-not necessarily good ones, but results.
We left school, with the warning to fill up on gas as the stations were becoming targets and there would be a shortage. Before the last kid left it was reported to us that there was no gas left in town and the roads had been blocked preventing any supply trucks from getting into the city. We, of course and along with several others, had less than a 1/4 tank. We avoided the gas stations as the live was so long it was causing traffic problems. There were reports of violence so we decided to try to get to the commissary for some supplies. We get through some crazy traffic and it was closed, way early. We then went to the local shop, but were diverted when a young child was hit by a car and the people involved were fighting/getting the child into a car for help. It is always dangerous to be blocked in when the crowd gets involved and we were one car away.By the time we got into the shop we were frazzled as it was jam packed with people stock piling. There was no bread or eggs and some other things were not available. We got some more things that still didn't make a meal--Linda our house keeper was ill and hadn't gotten us any food this week.