IN STEREO

As soon as I wake up, the first thing I always do is open the window and look at the mountain, right? And I see, I calculate the hour [by] where the sun is. And I also see the minibuses go up. When the little minibus goes, then it means that it is still very early. When the dump trucks start to appear [and] the taxis start to go up – [when] there is more movement – then this is when you have to hurry. Because we do not have a fixed schedule, but an approximate schedule: we meet to go to work [anytime] from eight until ten in the morning. That [type of] schedule. Well, then I get ready; I go to the mountain. And there we meet with comrades and chat for a while – a few ‘good morning’ greetings. First, what we do is go to eat: “Let’s eat, everyone.” There are ladies who sell a few snacks and we go to eat there.

We are always looking in newspapers, because the mineral prices interest us more than anything, you see? And then we go to our section and we start to chew the coca leaves. In the coca break, we chat and we tell some stories, we laugh. And the coca break is at least an hour, you see. And from there we change and we go inside the mine: more concentrated now, no longer any jokes at all. Calmer, concentrating on what we have do. At the mine we don’t have a schedule. No, we don’t enforce it. Because at the end of the day, inside the mine it’s dark all the time, you see. I mean, there is no night, there is no day. [The time] doesn’t matter inside the mine. We are more connected, let’s say, to what we have to do – because the goal is whether we take our load, you see? – Amilcar