The “blondeness” among several children are
tell tale signs of malnutrition and protein deficiency. When being farmers
or fishermen alone made survival virtually impossible, most males were
forced to work as laborers in the plantation. They are usually employed
as drainage workers and pesticide applicators, working in direct contact
with the chemicals, wearing little or no protective clothing at all. One
laborer narrates that his job involved walking through canals of waste
materials, wherein the chemical-laced waters reached his thighs, thus rendering
his boots useless. He consequently ended up losing two toes and a badly
infected foot, the treatment of which he had to pay with his own income.
Another companion of his doing similar work was more unfortunate, and eventually
died of cancer of the foot.
