En route to a rural village in western Nicaragua, we pulled over to talk to a man and woman on a horse-drawn cart headed the same way. When you see these sorts of sights along the road in Latin America, you don’t think much of it… until you realize what they’re doing.
This man and his cousin were returning from a three-mile ride to fetch water, because they have no water source in their village. Here, a local family might spend three hours a day just getting water, and pay as much as 40 percent of their income to buy enough for their basic needs – drinking, bathing, cooking, etc.
Bear in mind that these folks are living under a blistering hot sun, with no air conditioning, in a humid climate where you can expect to be drenched in perspiration 24-hours a day. If you stop sweating, it’s because you’re dehydrated – and many villagers are.