People
Faisal is born in the desert.
He can survive there as long as he has his animals with him.
He wins the hunter competition nearly every year.
With a camel, a falcon and a dog, he can find preys and water.
After leaving the desert and becoming sedentary like all Qataris nowadays, Faisal kept going back to his nomad roots which he tried to pass on to his children.
As one of the most beautiful example of the Bedouins' hospitality, he uses the coffee grinder to make a melody in the bowl to call other Bedouins to share a drink.
The place Said calls home is the Sahara. Everynight, he falls asleep in front of his house so that the last thing he sees are the millions of stars unspoiled by city lights. They lead to the feeling of how small we are in the universe, enhanced by the isolation in the desert.
Life there is tough. The Drâa, Morocco’s longest river, has been narrowed by a dam. The water doesn’t feed the soils enough anymore to maintain the vegetation, and as a result, the desert is envading the palmgrove. Dates used to be the main resource for local trade. But now that their production is threatened, many people decided to leave the desert and look for jobs in cities. Said decided to stay because life in the desert is made of simple things. He knows how to survive where most humans wouldn’t last a day.
Said is part of those people whose wisdom is one of someone who has lived many lives. Each conversation with him is a gift.
Aniubal is just over 30 and has studied for 12 years to become a veterinary. After dedicating so much time to his career, he only worked with animals for a couple of months. He was working long exhausting shifts and had to be on call at night. His salary as a vet’s assistant was equivalent to 40$, which is still 3 times higher than any average Cuban citizen. But when the government opened free courses for manual jobs, he decided to try to become a barber. He is now cutting hair and shaving beards in his living room,and earns about 8 times more than he used to. He says his country's system isn’t coherent because someone who sells peanuts can make more money than a doctor. He is afraid that the next generation of students will turn their backs to medical jobs which are essential.
Argentina is one of the very few countries to recognize that gender is non-binary by allowing transgender people to change their gender and name on their ID cards among other impactful decisions. But although their rights are moving forward, a large part of society is still very discriminative towards trans people. Due to this rejection, many have dropped out of school and find themselves with no other option than prostitution to earn a living. Hate murders are frequent and the life expectation of trans people doesn’t exceed 35 years.
Alma has left the streets to integrate Mocha Celis, an LGBTQ-friendly high school that gives this community a chance to graduate, and potentially find a job afterwards which could get them out of precarity. She has since then builta strong activism movement which fights against heteronormativity and has succeeded in implementing quotas of LGBTQ employment in public fields. One hell of a woman.
César is the patriarch of a Kichwa village called Tingo Pucará, in the middle of Ecuadorian Andes. The community doesn’t exceed a hundred inhabitants and is nearly self sufficient. Their way of living has been unchanged for centuries and it is only recently that houses are built with more than with adobe and straw. Most young people leave the harsh rural life to settle in bigger cities for better job opportunities.
César realised that one of the main reasons for this rural exodus was the absence of running water, creating low health conditions. After many vains attempts of getting local politicians to invest in a water system, he managed to catch the attention of Engineers Without Borders. Thanks to a fundraising, a pump and filter were installed. Since then, some of the young workers decided to turn their back to the city life and returned to the peaceful atmosphere where they grew up.
The sound of their pan flutes combined with the geographical isolation of the village gives you a natural high.
Canaan is a Palestinian Master brewer. His family came back to their land after having settled inthe USA hoping their country’s situation would get better. His father opened the first brewery in a muslim country, located in the christian village of Taybeh. Adding to the fact Palestine is not recognised internationnally, it is a daily challenge to run the family business. Anything connected to alcohol could be seen as sinful by some muslim so it is difficult to find workers. The access to water is scarce and there are often electricity cuts due to Israeli occupation. But Taybeh Beer couldn’t be doing better. Canaan’s sister runs the administration, making her one of the few woman entrepreneur in the Middle East. The beer is currently exported to as many as 10 countries. Their production includes a non-alcoholic beer for the muslim community and they host an Oktoberfest each year.
I stumbled upon Victor in a packed street on my last day in Mexico. He told me had his legs amputated due to an orphan desease when he was 5. After the 2017 earthquake, he didn’t hesitate to help, from picking up the rubble to distributing food. His resilience and motivation caught the attention of the media and videos about him went viral.
Victor still spends 3 hours in public tranports each day to sell lollipops in Mexico City Centre. Some days policemen ask him to leave because selling in the street is illegal. But his fame made them more comprehensive and they tolerate his activity. However he covers his face so that people don’t recognise him otherwise they chat and distract him from selling. His dream is to open a foundation for street children. He believes the only limits we have is the ones we create in our minds.
He often sends me messages with positive quotes or to tell me he's back on TV.
His girlfriend is expecting a baby, he is over the moon.
Andres' face looks old but his attitude is young. He is a guide in the hills of Viñales, west Cuba. He was a teenager when the Revolution took place. Like many people of agricultural background, he says the changes under Castro's rule were beneficial. His parents would work for a rich landowner only allowing them to have a small house and to keep enough of what they grew for their family. The establishment of communism gave them access to health and education, and he can keep or sell most of what he produces, only handing a small percentage back to the regime. Nowadays, tourism helps him provide his family more than just the basics.
