Perspective is everything.
Pablo has a contagious smile, he's polite, cheery and positive, regardless of his days work. Pablo spends most of his time hand harvesting and working with the land and his crops, which he thoroughly enjoys. Life has been demanding and tough, living in one of eleven villages at Lake Atitlan.
Pablo has no idea how him and his small circle of fellow friends and workers, have impacted my work, my mindset, my gratitude and perspective.
'I love working outdoors, I have fresh air and work with my hands'. He responded to my question when asked about how he feels at work.
Pablo lives in the next village, San Pablo, and often walks the long route regardless of weather.
He is 54 years old, and like the vast majority of farmers in the village work from young ages, up until they no longer physically can and take on this work as their duty.
Working
Siriaco Mejia is an optimist. His friend Gloria Gonzalez says he is always smiling, even when he is in trouble. He just has a positive outlook.
But even Mejia was unable to put a favorable spin on his situation at harvest time in late 2009: after he’d planted his corn and beans in his field high above the languid Chixoy River, now flowing at a very low level, his crops had failed, owing to lack of rain. Most years he can grow one ton of corn. This year, Mejia says he got about a tenth of that.
“We could see the corn cobs, but when we opened them up, many were totally empty,” Mejia says, standing in his field. “We got almost nothing this year.”
Guatemalan farmer Siriaco Mejia lost nearly 90 percent of his corn crop in 2009, owing to poor rains. Photo: James Rodriguez/Oxfam America
Mejia did everything he could short of making it rain, including fertilizing his field twice at great expense. But now that the 42-year-old farmer has harvested nearly everything, the field is overgrown with bright yellow weeds. Some call them flor de muerto (flower of death).
Mejia says at this point he is done trying to grow food and must wait for the next planting season in June 2010.
“We hope there will be rain,” he says. “Otherwise, we may die.”
Santo and his smile will stay with me, a smile that speaks volume.
Watching daily for 3 months, the lives of these men.
How often do we think of the world others live? Their background, social structures, fortune or misfortune.
I was looking for a place to stay with my newly rescued 4 week old Puppy.
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