We also struggled to discover their most urgent ailments and to devise programmes regarding intervention. The people's basic needs are many and the list is extensive. A high proportion of them lack adequate housing, frequently having to succumb to the strong winds or rain that perforates the badly constructed wooden huts. Hygiene and nutrition are yet another urgent problem. This is because they are often restricted to a daily diet of frijoles - beans, and tortillas, frequently cooked in contaminated water in a tiny space, which is also inhabited by pigs, dogs, chickens and other squalid animals.
Some houses also have no electricity and no drainage system.
Unfortunately, the ones who suffer most are the children, who often lack sufficient clothing, an appropriate diet, hygiene and altogether social contact. They are often left to wallow in dirt and unwashed. In spite of all these mishaps, these people never cease to keep on struggling to survive, and one essential element in people's lives seems to be their profound fate in God and the Church. In fact, virtually all the people, old and young, walk extremely long distances to reach the church on Sundays, and are always elated with the presence of Fr. Anton, who brings a couple of minutes of joy simply with his presence.