And so I looked up what the minimum wage is, and it’s the
equivalent of about $50.00. No, that’s
not a day, no, that’s not a week, that’s a month. A farm laborer gets paid less than that while
teachers, nurses and other professionals get about six times that, or around
$310.00 per month. Of course, there are
others who get more – managers, technology experts, politicians (they get more
than three times a teacher’s salary.
What’s new? That seems to be the
case around the world). For some
things it’s cheaper to live here than in other parts of the world, especially
in the developed world, but in some ways it’s more expensive. Gas/petrol for the car costs a bit over $5.00
per gallon but of course that doesn't
directly impact those who earn
minimum wage. But it does still impact them, because even if they
don’t own a car that needs a tank of gas now and again, they do use public
transport and bus fare always goes up along with the price of gas. And so we celebrate another year of just getting by for most
people.
But some good news I heard this
week is that in many of the villages around us, there is an abundance of
food. That makes people here happy also,
since that food will be transported here to the city and if there’s a lot, it
will be fairly cheap. Those with a
little nest egg can buy enough food for the year now while the price is cheap;
those who are too poor to have any savings will continue to live from hand to
mouth.
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