Meet old man Roger: A 70 year old carpenter, not yet retired and still doing the grind
I have been doing a series of street photography lately( latest was Volume XII) and sharing them in this brilliant community. I wanted to thank you all who appreciate the small stuffs I shared in the past. During those street photography walks though I always encounter people who are struggling in life. Specially the old ones and those with impairments.
One of the subjects I capture before was this an old man named Roger. His full name is Rogelio Riego De Dios. He only have one tooth left as seen in the image above. He doesn't chew his food anymore according to him he just swallow it straight as long as the food is soft. He always have a pencil inserted in his cap too. He is now 70 years of age and a widower. He is living alone in a small shack and only finished 3rd grade in elementary education. He was in Saudi before with the same job as construction worker and hasn't save any penny because he has to provide for his large family. He said he has 8 kids and all of them has their own families to take care of now.
I asked him why is he not retiring yet, he said "I don't have any savings and I need this job so I can buy my food and pay the bills." He does not have healthcare only his senior citizen card. He is an expert in his profession but only get 500 pesos for a day's labor. He also doesn't want to ask any assistance from his children because they are also not that fortunate in life and they have their own family now. All of his 8 kids also did not finish high school which is a sad thing.
Yesterday, there was an unfortunate incident that involves this old man. He was pulling round bar steel in the 2nd floor during a neighbor house construction and the bar accidentally tipped a hammer on the 3rd floor which fell directly to his head. His head was hurt and the blood did not come out all the way from a small wound. When I heard about what happened I went to the construction site and applied Betadine. He said he was dizzy for a few minutes and feel a tolerable amount of pain. He does not want to go to the hospital and have it checked and X-ray because it was his fault that he left the hammer in the edge of the 3rd floor and he jokingly said"I will just take a pain reliever and antibiotics. It's just a small wound, no need to worry about.".
Here is where the hammer fell from.
And here is the hammer itself, can't blame it though.
Here are few more of Roger's photos while working with a head injury.
Before I left yesterday I went back home and grab my camera and take a few of his photo that you've seen right now, I told him that I will post his incident to Steemit and see if we can get some help so he can have a proper medical check. I also left him a small amount so he can buy meds over the counter to ease the pain. I don't know if he was able to report to work today but I will check on him later this afternoon once I am home. That's Roger's unfortunate accident yesterday and I will share with him half of whatever this blog will make or if it's not enough then I may have to donate the whole SBD payout to him.
This is the first helpinghand tag so far. Thank you all for taking time reading this. I truely appreciate it!
These are all @allmonitors original images.
Medium: Panasonic Lumix ZS100
That's it for now. Until next time! Namaste!
Don't forget to upvote, resteem and follow for more stuff like this from me and my country, The Republic of the Philippines.
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Wow! This is an amazing story. Thank you for taking the time to write this. Roger's story is something that everyone should read. I'll make sure to resteem it.
I don't think many people realize the sacrifices that people living in poverty have to make...not only in their everyday life...but also well into their old age. I've been living in South Korea for many years now and something that's caught my eye are the high amount of elderly people lugging around carts full of trash on the street. According to my husband, those people usually don't have families that can support them, so they walk around the streets collecting recyclable materials all day in order to earn money. Their backs are hunched over from the weight of the carts that they carry. And regardless of the weather, I always see them outside.
So I always wonder, how can we possibly help them? We can help one person sure, but how do we fix the problem at its roots? Is it the job of a countries government to care for their poor elderly? Or is the problem rooted in education. If roger and his kids had had the chance to finish school...I wonder how different their lives would have turned out.
They may have turned out fine if they finished their education but didn't because of financial struggles. Eventhough public schools offer free tuition fees, the money need to buy school stuffs aren't sufficient enough. So once they reach the age of retirement they are still out their working just to have something to fill their hungry stomachs. Thank you for reading and appreciate the resteem, Have a good one! ;)
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hi there, thank you..hopefully more steemians will notice this ;)
I love seeing pictures from other parts of the world. Crazy seeing how different it is a few countries over.
thank you ;)
Wow your report is awesome. Good Job !
thank you.
I worked in the trades in the US for over two decades. There are a lot of men like him. The thing is, I dare the young guys to keep up with him or even me. The skills he possesses more than make up for his age, I guarantee it.
Hi @markrmorrisjr, you are exactly on point. His skills are exceptional. Thank you for the time reading.
AWESOME..!!
yes he is ;)