Isabel doesn’t remember how old she is

Isabel doesn’t remember how old she is. She didn’t get her “cédula” (Government ID card) until her late 60s, and by then, she had forgotten what year she was born. Back then, for people like Isabel who lived out in the “campo” (the far away countryside, deep in the forest), it didn’t make much sense to travel into the city to get one.

Today Isabel, long a widow and living with only the $40 a month “bono” (retirement allowance) the government provides its elderly, must live with her daughter Olga for support.

Olga is a single mother with 5 kids, and she finds any work she can to provide her family with food, and her kids with an opportunity to go to school. An average day for a woman like Olga might include being hired to clean gardens, or cook for homes. Though Isabel constantly feels sick, she does what work she can cultivating their own garden. Though they have little, they still insisted on giving us two stalks of sugar cane from their garden.

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