IN STEREO

When I was young – when I was six or seven years old – my father left us, and my mother was pregnant. I don't know what happened, [but] my mother started to work to support me and my younger sister. She used to sell products at the market. I felt really bad when I used to see her working at the market, in this windy weather, you know? We lived with my uncles in my grandfather’s house. My early life was really, really hard, because we didn't have help from my father. I had a bad experience, but thanks to that, I am serious about my work. Now my mother and my father are living together again – they got back together twenty years ago. [So] I have another young sister. [I worked in the mine for] one year, more or less, when I was 16 or 17. At that age I was like those men – or boys – who want to do things by themselves and don’t listen to other people.

That's why I said, “Oh, I am alone – I don't need anything from my mother, from my uncles. I have to do it by myself.” I went into the mine with my friends. I started carrying bags with minerals. That’s when I realised it was [actually] a really hard job. My friends were prepared – they had been working more months, more years. They were ready to work, [with] hammers, lights, good clothes… In my case, no. No light, no boots, no jacket, no good clothes. And we carry 45 to fifty kilos, you know. My friends had special protection for their shoulders. In my case, no. That's why carrying 13 or 14 bags, 200 to 300 metres out from one place, then coming back, was really hard for me. Also with the minerals hitting my back... Oh, I almost cried. That was my hardest experience in the mine. Thanks to that, I learned many things about life. – Ronald