Feeling thirsty, I head first back to my house. Here, under the kitchen bench, sits an old empty green glass bottle with "Sprite" written all over it. Without this bottle I will not be able to get another one. Oh, it is not the only way that the drinks come these days, but it certainly is the cheapest... or at least it was.
My time here in Argentina has been relatively short. It was only last year that I arrived here, just over 1
1/2 years ago. At that time I was paying only $1.50 for the 1.5 litre bottle which seemed very reasonable to me. However it was not to remain that way, and when I returned from my Christmas holidays I was shocked to discover that the price had suddenly climbed to $2.00 a bottle.
That was a massive jump that occurred very quickly. It was not the only thing that jumped in price however, as there were noticeable rises in prices in virtually all of the foodstuffs and some of the other commodities. It did not worry me too much at the time though, because I was still quite accustomed to the higher prices that I had been subjected to back in Australia and New Zealand.
The more time I spend in this country however, the more accustomed I am becoming to these prices. Now the prices that seemed cheap before are starting to look very normal. That is why today, when I stopped by the shop, I was somewhat shocked to hear that the prices are going up once again. As of tomorrow we will be paying $2.20 for that same bottle of softdrink.
How can they put the prices up already, when they already had risen so much only a few months ago? It seemed like highway robbery, and there was nothing that I could do about it. This is symptomatic of what is happening in many areas of this country. It is climbing in cost on a monthly basis. Something somewhere is going up in price. Peoples wages have not risen, but the cost of living certainly is.
So there I was, with my last bottle of $2.00 peso Sprite in hand, feeling shocked over a rise in the cost of my drink. Surprisingly though, I was not thinking too much in me. We work with a number of local families that are struggling even now to make ends meet. I was thinking about them, and how they would possibly connect those ends if the prices just keep rising as they are. I was thinking about the companies dictating the prices and how they could justify raising their prices once again when there has been no indication even of wages rising in this country.
But then I thought about some of the war experiences and how inflation was so high that the prices were rising by the hour. How they would carry notes in a wheelbarrow just to buy one loaf of bread. How so many people went through some serious hardship just trying to live. Then my $0.20 price rise on an optional food item did not seem too bad. Yes, it is not only this item that will increase in price. Yes, the cost of living is rising...
...but I think we will all make it. For now, anyway.