$20 bill

As is common with many Latin American families, there is usually a person who takes care of the house; a housekeeper if you will. The house where I live is no different. Her name is Carmen, she is 36 years old, never been married and has worked here for the last 7 years. She lives here in a room above a storage shed which is located next to the house but not connected. She stays here Sunday night-Friday 24/7. Her chores include, cleaning the entire house everyday (bathrooms, kitchen, common spaces, etc.). She does the laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, and anything else that the lady of the house (the owner Ana) wants or requests. She is not required to clean up after me or the other 3 students living here, nor does she do any cooking or laundry for us but she will if asked.
Carmen as a person is one of the most innocent, kind, generous, grateful human beings I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. She always has a smile and is eager to help with whatever is needed. I've spent many hours talking to her, well she does a lot of the talking and I listen mostly. She's very facinated with the U.S., she loves american clothes and programs that are dubbed in Spanish. What she does know about the U.S. she gets from TV:(. So I try to debunk some of the common myths and give her a little bit rounder perspective of this far away dream land.
Carmen has never traveled outside of Lima. This means that in two weeks I have seen more of her country then she has in 36 years. I asked her why she's never traveled and she said "por plata" - because of money. To give you a reference, I took a bus to Ica (about 5 hours south) to go sandboarding last weekend, the trip there and back cost me 65soles ($21). As you can imagine this surprised me emmensly that it was so cheap yet not cheap enough for Carmen. In the states I know there are people who have never left their state or been on an airplane, but to never leave the city you live in - I've never encountered such a person.
Of course my next thought was, how much does she get paid to live and work in this house? I asked a few of my friends from school what the norm was for this type of work, around 400 maybe 500 soles/month - that's less than $200/month. After taking in this information I tried to figure out her cost of living (after all she lives here 5 days of the week). So I concluded that her cost of living probably isn't very high - really cause she's not doing to much living.
In a later conversation Carmen told me that on the weekends she takes turns with her sister looking after their mother who has some sort of phsycosis problem which requires constant monitoring and medication. Then it really hit me just how little money, material wealth, and life she has.
So I hired Carmen to do my laundry and change my sheets once a week, and sweep my room a couple times a week. I told her to name the price but she wouldn't, she asked me to tell her what's fair. So I asked her if $15/week was okay. She responded with a huge smile on her face and said, "si Bianca si, este es bien, muy bien!" (very good), then she asked if I was going to pay her in dollars or soles and I said dollars, needless to say this elated her greatly. Tuesday I made my first payment. I gave her a $20 and said that I'll give her a $10 the next week (it's not convenient to break bills here). She took the $20 and looked at it as if it were a rare jewel. She moved it around in her hands, folding it and feeling the texture. Then she held it up to the light and studied the water marks and the colors. After close inspection, she looked at me with a huge smile and said in Spanish, "I've seen $20 bills but I've never actually had one of my own." I told her. "It's yours, you earned it." She then told me that she was going to go put it in a safe place. As she walked away, $20 pressed firmly against her chest, I realized what a huge moment that was for her, and me. I will never forget the way her face lit up and how carefully she examined the bill. How extremely proud and happy she was to get a $20. I've only seen that same expression on children when they receive a present that they've yearned for.
Needless to say, this experience changed me too.