Cocaine and it's Finished Product

Hi I'm Diego and I have been working very hard with these guys making cocaine. I found this picture buried in the mud and thought it would make a good picture about my life. It has been hard but I think I can not pull through. I don't understand why those three guys are not in here stomping on the coca leafs. I don't want to say anything to them because I am scared they will do something with me. I'm not sure if Mondo is enjoying it. This is NOT fun at all but it will be worth it at the end. that is if we get paid. It looks horrible right now but wen it's finished I bet it will look good. The guy on the street will pay a fortune for this stuff. I wonder if my mother and father are looking for me. I really miss Corina.

Preston

My Home

Hi! I'm Diego and I'm 12 years old. I live in Bolivia where sadly home to me is a jail cell. I won't have a real home till I'm 24 years old.The reason my home is a jail cell is because my mom and dad got framed for using cocaine!So at 12 years old I live in the San Sebastien Women's Prison in Cochabamba, Bolivia with my mom and little sister Korena. My dad lives in the Men's Prison a little while away from here. I miss him immensly and don't see him as much as I want to, so I make an effort to visit him as often as i can. Our cell is very small as you an see and has only 1 bed and not much space at all to move, but luckily I am free to go wherever I want(school, village...etc) and don't have to stay in the cell all day long. Some of the women is the prison are crazy, so my mother gets worried from time to time for the safety of her kids. One time, one of the ladies had Korena in her arms and was shaking her and yelling.Luckily the guard took her away fast, though my mother was scared and furious with that women and me too for not watching her closely. The cell is very expensive so we have I have to pay the rent since my mother can't go out of the cell. To pay the rent I work as a "taxi" doing errands for the women at the prison, and I get paid doing extra homework for some of the kids at school! Well I think my mom wants me to take Korena out to the park so that she can have some time to herself. Adios! (Adios means goodbye in Spanish, the main language spoken in Bolivia)

Anna:P

The Making of Cocaine

Hey, I'm Diego and in this picture there are in the mixing stages of the making of coco paste. We mix the coco leaves with kerosene and a lot of other fuels and chemicals. We then mix it either with our feet or with motorized mixers. It is then strained from the chemicals and then it is packaged in tinfoil for it to be sold.

RJ :)

Hey, I'm Diego. Lately this has been my life. Working hard, hard hours to make illegal drugs to earn money for my family. I wouldn't have had to be here if I had just been paying attention to my little sister when I was supposed to. That's what lead to me getting here...Here, me and a bunch if others are forced to work. Day and night, with barely any food or water! We're always draining water from the leaves and then pouring deadly and flammable chemicals onto them. I just wish I could be back home on our old farm, but that won't be happening for a while now, since my parents are in jail. It wasn't their fault though. I will be stuck here for a while, and it won't be fun, but i have to if I want to secure our spot in the jail for my mom, Corina and I to live.

The cocaine lab.

This is where I first started my jod as working for cocaine smugglers. At the start, it eas awful, but then they started giving us drugs to smoke. at first, it was awful, but then i started working harder and harder. The chemicals burned on my bare feet, but I knew we needed the money considering my mother and Korina live in jail. The man you see in the picture is Rock. He's our boss but his name explains a personality... he's dumb as a rock, and extremly mean. He's making cocaine... a disgusting, addictive drug. I miss home and i lnow this is the wrong thing to do but this is what Mando said would make us alot of money... so here goes nothing.

David :)

Diego's pictures

The photo on the is a picture of my jail cell at San Sebastian Women's Prison. My sister, my mother and I all sleep in the miniscular bed in the right of the photo. It makes me feel really sad that all of this was not my parents' fault, and yet they are the ones in jail. It seems like fate has gave us a blow that I don't think will ever fully heal. I haven't been able to sleep for a long time, I keep having the thought that god has left us. I still have hope though. I still believe that miracles are possible.

The next photo is of my mom and my dad harvesting the coca leaves. It makes me feel pretty good when I see my mom happy like that. I haven't seen her smile in a long time. It also makes me think about how one moment you can be happy and prosperous and the next moment your sad and gloomy. I hope that one day I will be out of this prison and out in the coca fields. Th thing I want most though is to be free.

Vytas

What my life is and what my life could have been...

This is a picture of the prison I live in. I was standing on that balcony when I dropped the ball and spilled the soup. That was how this nightmare started. I wish we did not live in jail. I wish we could live on the coca farm. Speaking of coca farms at school today I found these two pictures I think they represent what my childhood could have been like. I hope Mondo isn't still thinking about going on that trip thing but now that I think it may not be a bad idea. Maybe I could help Mama pay off that stupid pot of soup. I will go with Mondo on the trip. I will, I will, I will. See you when I'm back,

Diego

Gillian