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"A Day in the Life of....." Part two

"A Day in the Life of...." Part two

Factfile

Name: Alfonso Dippierri

Age: 14

Birth place: La Paz, Bolivia

Diary Entry: 26th July 2011

A cock-a-doodle-do is what I wake up to, signalling that it is time to go and help my Mum and Dad harvest the crop, so that we have breakfast to eat this morning. Even though it won't be enough to feed me, Mum, Dad, my four younger sisters and my younger brother.

As I am the oldest out of the children I have to take on a role as a third adult in the family so that it makes it easier for Mum and Dad. 

This morning is no different, after we have harvested the crop, we eat breakfast and then three of my sisters get ready for school. I wish I could go to school instead of working at home, helping along with our subsistence farming, (our only supply of food), but I can't.

This is because girls and boys are are treated differently here, Girls are forced to abandon school and help the family and the local community, whereas Boys are encouraged to stay in school. so that they can get a job to support their family in the future.

As I am thinking of all this and how unfair it all is, I am walking my three younger sisters to school, we have to walk because there is hardly any transport around, and if there is, it is very bad. I think this is because it is very hard to drive around in our little dusty village, which is clinging to the mountain side, just a few miles east of La Paz. The capital of Bolivia.

After I have dropped my sisters off at school walk down to the local, but small, central market. To buy some essentials, with the little money we as a family have. We live on less that one British Pound a day, which can be hard sometimes, but is helped along by us being able to grow our own food.

This is because there are hardly any jobs to serve for everyone who needs one in our neighbourhood. This normally leads to lack of money within families, then illness and malnutrition because nobody has enough food. I know this because just recently has by younger brother recovered from dysentery because of help from a local charity.

I have now got all the stuff I need from the market and start the thirty minute walk back home, to our home. We built it ourselves out of bricks and wood, after our old home got flooded and washed away.

The charity that helped my younger brother also taught us as a communtity about a few important things in life, standard of living and quality of life. I'll get onto that later. They also said that 6 in 10 children in Bolivia live below the poverty line and that 6 in 100 kids die before the age of five or below. Those are some socking statistics.

I am now cooking tea for the family, Mum and Dad are still outside farming, my three younger sisters are still at school but will be home soon, my other younger sister and my younger brother are playing together in the corner. I am happy.Even though i know my standard of living is not good compared to other people in the world, but I will bet that my quality of life is better.

This is because I am happy and content with my life as it is, I might like being able to do more things like, going to school and to get a proper job. But that doesn't really matter as long as I am with my family, no matter how hard life might get.

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thanks for reading, again, i hope you enjoyed it :D

please check out some of my other stories as well :) thank you

elspethmcook