baja: work camps (pt 3)

continued from work camps (pt 2)

If you can look past the kids you'll see the adults and the living conditions. The row houses are very small. The Building shown is 3 houses. If you look inside, and your eyes adjust to the dark, you'll see a mixture of dirt floors and concrete. The air is musty and moist. On the perimeter of the room I saw, had troughs that are presumably used for water waste. The outside doors are falling off the hinges and there is no running water. The bathrooms are on the outside of the camp in the form of a long row of outhouses. They are moist, dirty and lots of flys.

The laundry facilities are common areas that the ladies come everyday to scrub their clothes clean. The large rusty water tank serves to provide water for cooking and also cleaning. The ladies do a great job after a long work day. Their clothes are clean. They are proud hard working people, ashamed of their plight.

They are just like me and others I know. Their poverty is not their fault. It's not just an issue of hard work and good choices. Their poverty is bigger than any one of them. They have no choices.

They are paid just enough to survive. The farmer has a store at the camp where the workers spend their money. You'd think why not just escape the camp? Walk away? Okay, but it's not that easy. There are many demonic forces keeping them in the camp.

The workers are generally a people group from the south, easily distinguishable. Many of them are the Oaxcan and they are severly opressed people outside of the camp. Policia are know to beat them. They are considered less than normal. Pure racism at it's worst. If they did walk away from the camp, not many would hire them. They are not educated. They can't read. No educational opportunities. They are malnurished and would be considered a burden to others. They have no transportation. They can't put the truck in drive and leave. The work camps are usually far from town, hidden from view. Leaving or abandoning their family would be difficult. There are many forces that keep the people in the camp.

The cycles of poverty are blatenant and unattended to.

They are called work camps for the farm workers. It's more like a minimum security compound that exploits people with souls who can't get out.