It’s Tuesday, mid morning, and I can hear kids playing on the road above our house. On the way to teach my class, I pass groups of kids playing marbles on the streets, chasing chickens. Why aren’t the kids in school? Their teachers are on strike. This strike has been going on for about two weeks, but we have heard of a strike a few years ago that lasted for three months. It is hard for your country to excel when you don’t have regular classes for school kids. There are many, many days off classes: for teachers’ regional soccer tournaments, for parade practice, for Student Day or Mother’s Day or any number of holidays, or, I guess, for strikes.

The line at the hospital has been especially long every day, which is unusual for the the months of what we call summer and early fall. The local doctors have been on strike since May! As we understand it, the doctors in Peru all have their own private practice and are required to work in public government hospitals part-time. If they want to demand higher pay from the government, the doctors strike, the public hospitals close down, and the poorest people have nowhere to go. Those who can afford it can go see doctors in their private clinics and hospitals, but Diospi Suyana Hospital has been inundated with patients who can only pay government hospital prices.

Please pray that God will provide for the victims of broken public systems and that He will use the leaders in Peru to change the way things are run.