Traffic jams

Every night for a fortnight I've had to stop when I got to Montemor and inch past a line of cars, utes, vans, trucks, tractors with trailers and weird carts powered by two-stroke engines. Usually I fling the ute round the corner without a thought but now the street is blocked by vehicles and a dozen or two guys who have got out to stretch their legs, smoke, catch up with the others also waiting. It's the olive harvest so bagfuls and bagfuls of olives are being delivered to the olive oil press in identical polyweave bags,most with faded blue or red logos & stripes, probably resused year after year . The factory itself is an anonymous unmarked shed that seems almost abandoned 11 months of the year, until ths month where it becomes the centre of attention.

Even though its across the road from the police station it took a week for the traffic issue to be recognised and a lone uniformed policeman now stands on the corner to make sure no accidents occur. Well he isn't preventing any since the traffic is still as chaotic/congested as before - perhaps he's just there to ensure any incidents are resolved and reported. The weeks delay we suspect is because some in Montemor had to tell someone in Evora who had to get permission from someone in Lisbon to tell someone in Montemor to order a policeman to stand across the road in the morning.

Monday at work one guy was late to work as as he was taking his dad breakfast while he waited in line. All the stories started up - who had been there until 4am Saturday morning, who had given up waiting at 5am, who had waited from midnight til 6am just to be turned away because there was something wrong with their olives. I get the feeling these stories are the same year after year, probably back to the times when they delivered olives with horse and cart.

At times there is a sense of life never-changing here. And then change comes. There's also traffic jams in Escoural this week because the traffic lights which didn't work for the first year I was here, which have flashed orange for the last month or two, have suddenly began to work. They're the uncertain sort of traffic lights you get in a village, staying red for what seems like an age with no traffic coming the other, making you wonder whether they actually do change or if this is just some sort of village joke. Anxiety rises if theres a truck behind or another car, you begin wondering whether they're talking to themselves "Who's that idiot up ahead? Musn't be from around here, doesn't he know those lights never change!" As you're ready to throw caution to the wind and run the light it changes, and with the calm green anxiety fades.

Change needs time to become part of the routine. When I passed this morning the traffic lights were flashing orange again.