by Susan Dix Lyons
Joselin turned 13, and I know she’s in a danger zone. There may as well be sirens blaring, lights flashing. There are obstacles to avoid with every turn. During the day, she sells corn in the husk by the side of the road, hoping to catch the eyes of hungry truckers. Everything around her moves but her own life.
Joselin lives in Nicaragua, which has the highest rate of adolescent pregnancies in Latin America. Nearly half of women in Nicaragua give birth before the age of 20 and one-fourth of all births are to teen mothers.
I think of Joselin and look at my son, also 13, studying trigonometry, practicing piano. I think of Joselin’s shoeless feet and unchanging days and wonder how I can convince others that she matters.
Every year, 13 million babies are born to adolescents worldwide. There are a thousand studies and statistics that attempt to explain the significance of such a thing. But the numbers don’t grab me. This is what does:
A 13-year-old girl living in a crowded hut she shares with four siblings, her mother and whatever man shows up at dark. There is one narrow bed above the dirt floor and a hammock stretched between strips of timber where the youngest sleeps. The rest of the children sleep on the packed earth, with maybe a stray kitten or a chick, but no cover.
The girl tried to go to school, but she was behind. When she read aloud, the other kids laughed. She felt so dumb. But her mother needed her to work to help feed the family.
She knows how to work. All she has to do is stand there and hold up her basket. Sometimes men drive by and beep their horns or make comments that make her feel pretty. Somehow, that gives her a sense of hope when everything else feels the same – hard and empty, like her stomach at night.
Joselin is 13 years old and sells corn on the side of the road. Tonight, while our sons and daughters eat pizza or watch a movie, she’ll curl on the ground next to her brothers and sister and dream of nothing but sleep. And then, she’ll wake up and make her way to the road, where she will pray that someone sees her.
