I snapped these photos a week ago while sitting on the leather seat of our air conditioned truck, listening to Gnarles Barkley's "Crazy" downloaded from our iPod, waiting for Pat who was in the liquor store buying some Bacardi. He likely spent more money in the liquor store than this woman will earn in a year. I had to pry Taylor and Andrew from their Nintendo DS games to watch this mom, who was literally digging a foundation at a construction site - by hand! She would disappear, out of site for moments as she loaded up her huge, hand woven basket with dirt, and then emerge with it fully loaded atop her head, climb up and out of the ditch to dump it. Her daughter sits on the pile, with a steel plate of her own, mirroring her mother's actions, learning about hard work. Notice the oil jug on the hill in the second photo and the steel cup... drinking water... far from the chilled Evian we are sipping from in the truck.
I could take photos just like these absolutely everywhere in the city. Life is hard here. People simply work hard. It really alters our perspective, and, I hope, will change the way we see the world forever.
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