This is Dolores Heredia Cabrera and her son Miguel. They live on an island in the middle of this huge lake. The island is called El Pescado, which means little fish.
Miguel rowed their small boat 1 1/2 hours to get from their island to the mainland. There is a motorboat taxi available which reduces the ride to 20 minutes, but it cost 150 pesos ($8 USD) – a cost they cannot afford. After the rowboat, Dolores and Miguel walked 500 yards to the road to catch a ride. Dolores is disabled and walks with a lot of difficulty. After reaching the road, they took a taxi truck (10 pesos or 60 cents) for a 30–minute ride to downtown Ojitlan, the town where we held the clinic. After another taxi drove them to the clinic site, it took them about three hours to complete the clinic process and receive their glasses.
Dolores is 69 and Miguel is 40. They both received their first pair of glasses.
Dolores wanted glasses because her vision is so poor she cannot do anything around the house. Now she intends to do household chores to help out. Miguel takes care of his mother Dolores and his 79 year old father. He works in the family field on the island growing corn, beans, squash and other vegetables on season. Miguel was born on the island and has lived there his whole life. To earn money, he makes cement blocks by hand to sell. Miguel needed glasses for distance to help with his agricultural duties.
Dolores only speaks the Chinanteco dialect and she never went to school. Miguel speaks both Spanish and dialect and went school to the 6th grade.
They live a hard life and were very appreciative for the glasses, a luxury they would never be able to afford.