I think about the sulfur miners of Indonesia, a lot. They cross my mind almost every day. I think about them when I'm feeling good about life and even more so when I'm feeling bad.
The sulfur miners spend long days hacking off chunks of sulfur using heavy steel bars, inhaling dangerous gases as they do so, then they hand carry baskets of their work, weighing between 100 and 200 pounds, uphill several kilometers. At their destination they sell the sulfur for a couple of dollars and then make the trek back down to do it all again, maybe even two more times in the same day. Then they do it again the next day and the next. They have to hope to save up as much money as they can because, as you can imagine, this is not a job that can continue into old age and other opportunities for income in this part of Indonesia are hard to come by. These guys are actually the lucky ones. They're lucky.
It's too much to think about.
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2 comments:
OK, now I feel terrible about my cheesey FB comment. Really, I didn't know!
I'm going to think twice before I grumble about carrying my heavy bags from Lund's up the stairs. Thanks for putting it all into perspective, Deb.
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