Ersilia Carranza, left, Nubia Pineda, center, and Luchy Rodriguez dance next to the tomb of their friend Jorge, who died nine days before, at the General Cemetery in Guatemala City, Sept. 7, 2012. "Here in Guatemala we're screwed, but we laugh at everything, even death", said Byron Flores to The Associated Press.

Rodrigo Abd  / AP — In Guatemala, which has one of the highest mortality rates in the world and where violence is rampant, burial grounds have transformed into social spaces where relatives and friends of the deceased drink and dance as photographers are hired to take pictures and musicians play during funerals. Meanwhile, workers exhume bodies from plots that are behind on their payments, street peddlers set up shop and children play hide-and-seek.

Six years after a burial in the General Cemetery in Guatemala City relatives must pay around U.S. $24 to renew the burial plot for another four years, according to cemetery rules. If there is no payment, cemetery workers exhume the body and place the corpse in a mass grave. Over 2,000 bodies are exhumed annually after relatives fail to pay cemetery fees.

EDITOR’S NOTE: These images were made available to NBC News on Sept. 27.

Juana Lopez, 70, takes a nap as she waits for customers during funerals at the General Cemetery in Guatemala City, July 21.

Musicians from the band Los Tacuazines leave the General Cemetery in Guatemala City, Aug. 23. The band charges U.S. $38 to play eight songs during funerals.

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GRAPHIC WARNING: This post contains graphic images which some viewers may find disturbing.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

A woman sweeps the floor of a barber shop in Guatemala City. Guatemala City is a place where people live in fear.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Passengers travel on a packed public bus in Guatemala City.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Police officers take cover from the rain under a plastic sheet in Guatemala City.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Evangelical pastor Esbin Bar Flores, preaches on a microphone as Noe Laria holds his speaker in La Terminal popular market in Guatemala City.

AP reports: GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemala City is a place where people live in fear.

Dire poverty, gang violence and drug trafficking, and the failure of the government to provide a safety net, have contributed to the creation of a society where people isolate themselves from each other and make sure others keep their distance and where many seek solace in religion.

Squalor and poverty are constants in this city of 3 million. Paint peels from walls. Shantytowns sprawl along the sides of mountain ravines.

"We're a sad people, living in a depression," says Marco Antonio Garavito, a psychologist and director of the Mental Hygiene League. "It's hard for us to help each other because we live inside a shell that keeps us away (from others). We have a hard time with physical contact, with giving a good handshake.

Read the full story here.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Homeless men gather at the La Terminal popular market in Guatemala City.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Blanca touches the hair of an exhumed body as she walks through the the main cemetery with her grandchildren in Guatemala City. In Guatemala bodies are exhumed if relatives don't pay, six years after the burial, to renew the graveyard permission for another period of 4 years. After sending a telegram, if there is no payment, cemetery workers destroy the individual graveyards, and throw the skeletons into a collective graveyard.

Every now and then I see a set of pictures that reminds me of just how comfortable my life is. Rodrigo Abd’s photographs from “the Mine” in Guatemala City shows what life is like for the poor souls who eke out an existence by scavenging for scrap metal in a city dump. Their work, if you can call it that, is dangerous and dirty. I wouldn’t have believed it happens if Rodrigo hadn’t made the pictures.

All photos by Rodrigo Abd / AP

People search for scrap metal in contaminated water at the bottom of one of the biggest trash dumps, known as "The Mine," in Guatemala City, Oct. 19. Hundreds of informal workers descend daily into the mounds of the landfill and the rushing waters that come from a storm tunnel and a sewer at the bottom of a gorge to search for scrap metal to sell.

AP reports

Every day, about 300 people hike to the bottom of the ravine and wade into the water in search of rings and bracelets made of silver or gold. The water sifts and carries away the lighter garbage, leaving heavy metals on the stream bed.

"I make more money coming here than going to a company where they would continually scold me," says 41-year-old Eddie Miranda.

He got lucky on a recent day. "I found a bracelet with 9 grams of gold. I got 2,000 quetzals ($256) for it." Read more...

(Left) David Flores digs for scrap metal in contaminated water at the bottom of "The Mine" on Oct. 14.
(Right) Men sort scrap metal they found at the bottom of "The Mine" on Oct. 17.

(Left) A man holds up a gold ring, Oct. 6, he found as he was searching for scrap metal in "The Mine".
(Right) A man, known as Ronnie, carries a sack of metal he collected on Oct. 14. Ronnie also works as a security guard to protect workers from thieves who steal the metal they collect.

A girl named "Baluquita," 15, searches for scrap metal on Oct. 4.

More PhotoBlog posts from Guatemala

• Guatemala ex-soldiers sentenced 6,060 years in prison for massacre at Dos Erres
• Crime and corruption leads to epidemic of murdered bus drivers in Guatemala
• Guatemalan town celebrates Festival of Saint Thomas
• Migrants risk life and limb to work in U.S.

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According to Reuters and police, 15 bus drivers in Guatemala have been killed already this year, and 185 drivers and assistants were murdered by extortionists in 2010.

Read more about this long-problematic epidemic in the 2009 NPR piece here.   

Daniel Leclair / Reuters

The driver of a passing bus looks at a crime scene, where a bus driver was murdered, in Guatemala City on Feb. 15. According to police, 15 drivers have been murdered on the job in 2011. Last year, 185 drivers and their assistants were killed by organized gangs of extortionists.

Daniel Leclair / Reuters

Investigators work at a crime scene, where the driver of a public bus was murdered as he was refuelling, in Guatemala City on Feb. 15.

Daniel Leclair / Reuters

The body of a murdered public bus driver is seen under his bus in Guatemala City on Feb. 15.