helping....

I try not to watch the news of my country; they depress me. Too much violence, insecurity, and corruption. So I try to live in my own bubble pretending that life is what I want it to be. But recently, reading the paper of Costa Rica there was a segment of Guatemala, my home; it talked about how because of a draught all the crops had been lost, and now there are people dying from starvation. Some times I prefer to live in ignorance, it’s easier, it doesn’t hurt. I had just finished eating breakfast when I started reading the paper and was still sitting at the table. Once I finish reading I went outside, sat on the ground and felt guilty. Guilty that I am living in Costa Rica trying to help while in my country there is people dying from hunger. Guilty of the breakfast I ate. Guilty that I didn’t know what was going on in Guatemala. Guilty that I wasn’t doing anything.
I want to do something. I need to do something. It’s my right. It’s my obligation.

The photos you see above are going to be sold as postcards. All the money, all, is going to be sent to Guatemala to help families that don’t have anything to eat.

Can you help me?

It is crazy for me to think how much my actions can impact a person life, or a family. If we work together we can feed families that don’t have anything to eat.

If you wish to help me, send me an email to pablojimenezphotography@gmail.com

Ella

I was in the hospital taking photos for a couple of projects. It involved kids going through cancer treatment and people infected with HIV virus, and now I had to go to the ER. Even though I was curious about going to the ER, I was feeling sad because of the people I had met and the direction their live could turn. I entered the ail; it was well illuminated with the typical smell of disinfectant mixed with sickness. A nurse explain to me that the rooms were completely fulll and that’s why there were people laying in the ail instead than in a room. She asked me to ask permission to the patient before talking pictures, I agreed. I started walking, talking to injured, sick people, or their relatives. If it was okay with them I would take a picture. After a while of being there I was getting depressed; all the sickness, the consequences of violence or human stupidity, plus the sadness were getting to me. I decided to talk to a couple of more people then leave. I walked to this lady, grabbed a chair and sat with her. I explained who I was and what I was doing, and then I started asking her questions; the usual stuff. “What’s your name?” “Maria.” –“Where are you from?” -“Escuintla.” -“What happened to you?”….. After some small talk I asked her if I could take her picture, and she agreed. There was something in her eyes, a sadness so overwhelming, but she smiled for me when I was taking her picture. I sat down again. She said to me –“Can I tell you something?” “Sure.” I said. “Today is my birthday. My family knows where I am at but I don’t think they are going to visit”. There were tears in her eyes. I grabbed her hand, and felt a knot in my throat, I wanted to cry too. I said to her “I know you don’t know me, and I don’t know if you care, but I am here for you. Happy Birthday!” In that moment, in the mix of death and hopelessness I felt useful, I felt that the place I was in was the exact place where I was supposed to be at, I felt that my life had a meaning.
I kept talking to the lady for a while, she needed someone to talk to. After a while I left, and even though I was still sad for people I had met I knew that my life could bring hope in the mix of darkness even if I am a no one.

My Family

This is/ was my family. The photo was taken around 20 years ago. I chose this photo to share them to you; first because I think I kind of look cute in the picture, lol. And second because it is such a contrast to what my life is now.
I had a good childhood, amazing parents, and a good sister. But as time went on we all went on different directions. My mom went to heaven, my dad moved to El Salvador, my sister stayed in Guatemala, and I live now in Costa Rica with the aspiration of some day going to some of the most hopeless places in the world to help the people there….
We all changed.
I see this photo and I am reminded to be grateful for what I have now and not take anything for granted because I’ll never know what tomorrow is going to be bring.

An Old Story…

I was only 7 years old; I had my soccer ball, lunch box, sweater and bag pack. The bell rang and I was excited to go home after a long day at school. My friends and I went to the parking lot to wait to our parents to pick us up. One by one my friends started leaving until there were only a couple of us. We started playing soccer, trying to kill time, but soon enough I was by myself playing with the ball. I went to the payphone to try to call home, maybe someone had left a coin around, or maybe by miracle the payphone was going to let me call for free! It didn’t.
I was worried and scared; my parents were always on time to pick me up, and now I was alone and had been waiting for them for hours. A lot of thoughts started running through my head like: what if something happened to them, what if they forgot about me...
I grabbed my soccer ball, lunch box, sweater, and bag pack, made sure that the janitor and teachers weren’t looking and headed to the door. I had decided to find my way home. It was like 8 miles from my school to my home, but you need to understand that Guatemala City is one of the most dangerous cities in the world. I started walking to where I though home was, it was the first time I was going to walk home caz my parents always drove me. Everything looked different and bigger, and I walked and walked. I was happy and felt free and mature, and for the most part I was walking in the right direction.
After a long while of walking I saw my dad in the car. I waved my sweater at him until he saw me. He then came, gave me a huge hug and took me home.


I love this story. I don’t know why I felt the need to share it with you. I guess that the picture of a 7 yearl old me, walking by himself in Guatemala City makes me smile. In that time I was really short and weak, I would have been completely helpless if someone had chosen to do something against me.

There is another part of this story. My parents side of the story. My dad thought my mom was going to pick me up, and my mom thought that my dad was going to pick me up. When my dad came from work at 4 pm and saw that I wasn’t there, and my mom saw that I wasn’t with my dad, when they were supposed to pick me up at 1 pm they immediately rushed to get me at school. Once in school everybody started looking for me, but I wasn’t there anymore. They were worried. In a place like Guatemala City where kidnapping and child stealing is something you hear about everyday, you can imagine the fear and anguish that my parents where suffering. They called the police, and my dad decided to drive back and forth from the school to my house to see if he could find me. I can only imagine the relief my dad felt when he saw me walking. To know that I was okay, that he would be able to hug me and hold me in his arms, and play soccer with me every afternoon ….

In my life I have gotten lost many times, and most of those times I haven’t realized the anguish I have made my Dad go through. I though I was free when in reality I was lost and helpless. It is something I need to grasp in my life, that there is no better place for me than in my Dads presence.

You could tell by the way he treated her, the way he saw her, and the bond that they have that he loves her. She is all he has left…
He has a sad story like many of us; his wife left him for another man; a man that would abuse her to the degree that she tried to kill her self to be able to escape. The anguish and the stress of knowing that the person he loved choose an abusive man instead of him, and the responsibility of being a good single father affected him so much that he grew sick, and lost the ability to control his hands, and with that his job and part of his life.
But he has her….

There are moments in life where despair overwhelms us, where the valley of the shadow of death is more than a quote….
But he sees her and she smiles, and she tells him she loves him, and there is hope….and the cheating suicidal wife, the stroke that cause the lack of control of his hands, the lack of food, money, and a job become secondary. And he knows that some how they are going to be alright, and that as long as he has her and she has him they are going to be ok.

Choices....

Sadly I don’t know their stories. I met them once, maybe twice.
All I know about them is that they are homeless and everytime my friends go to the streets to feed the homeless they show up.
I see them and I ask myself, “What does it take to become like them?” The only answer I can think of is “ordinary everyday choices." They are the best example of small, bad choices that became so great that they lost everything. They ended up living on the streets with no better place to sleep than some newspapers on the ground and a cardboard box as a blanket.
I see them and I ask myself, “What type of everyday choices am I making?” and “How are these choices going to affect my tomorrow?”
It's not that I worry that one day I'm going to be homeless, but I know that the choices I make today are going to shape my tomorrow.
The two guys in the pictures had and still have the potential to become great people; they could have shaped society, they could have had a home with a family to love and cherish and everything and anything they dream of, but instead they have nothing.
I also have this potential as well as you, and like I said, its not that I worry that I am going to loose everything I own to the degree that I am going to be living on the streets. But I do worry that I am going to waste my time doing selfish things and loose the potential I have to shape the society I live in.
Every day I make choices, some good and some bad. Every day I shape my tomorrow. It is up to me to make “good everyday choices”. It is up to me if I want to become someone that is going to shape society.

Returning to Costa Rica!

I ask myself once in a while: how much can a man do to change this messed up world we live in? Sometimes I am scared to answer my own question, other times I am hopeful. But I am decided to make a difference in this world, small as it might be.
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2 billion children in the world...
1/2, 1 billion live in poverty.
Over half a billion kids are struggling to survive under $1 a day.
Every three seconds a child dies because of poverty.
246 million children are child laborers.
One in every 5 people in the world is a suffering child.
Every Day, almost 26,000 children die from preventable diseases.
130 million children lack access to education.
40 million street kids in Latin America.
Abuse...
Every year, around one million children are recruited into commercial sexual exploitation.
8.4 million children are trapped in slavery, trafficking, debt bondage, prostitution, pornography and other illicit activities.
Every month, 250,000 children are infected by HIV.
It is estimated that 1 of 3 girls have been sexually abused, 38% before the age of 18, 89% of victims know their abuser.
Every 2-5 minutes in some place in america someone is sexually assaulted.
Costa Rica is the #1 hotspot in Central America for sex tourism.
"A week doesn't go by, where an American man asks to be taken were the youngest girls are" San Jose taxi driver.
3 children are treated per day due to physical abuse in the National Children's Hospital in San Jose CR.
La Nacion, Sunday march 29 2009.
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I am going back to Costa Rica in a couple of weeks. I hope my life will impact society and people in need.
I am scared because I don’t know what is going to happen in the future, and being a missionary is not as glamorous as you might think. But I feel that helping people and sharing their stories is my calling.
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I have been thinking a lot, trying to figure out what is the reason I want to do this so much. To make sure I am doing this for the right reasons, because I know that if I am not the hopelessness and the failure is going to overwhelm me.
Something I have been learning is the value of people; it’s amazing to think that we are so valuable that God was willing to come as a man to this earth and die for us, so we could have a relationship with Him. And the relationship he wants is so personal that he wants to be my friend. And he wants me to love him as much as he loves me, and to love other people as I love myself. So at the end it all comes down to loving God with everything I have and loving others as I love myself. I want that to be the reason why I am going to Costa Rica, to love God every day a little bit more, and to learn how to love people as I love myself.
I hope to someday reach that level of loving God, and I hope that love to make a difference in this messed up world.
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I need your prayers and support in this journey that I am starting, let me know if you want to be a part of it!