Money and Religion

Sunday night I was reading an article in an old Newsweek called “The Pastor vs. The Atheist: Is God Real?”. Naturally it got me thinking about my own thoughts on the existence of god and half way through the article I decided I wanted the textbook definition of the word secular. So I opened up my laptop to use the dictionary and on the screen looking back at me was the statistics of my all free cell games staring back at me. Games play: 666 Games won:666 ( I cheat, Windows Vista makes that possible) Not only is it a bad sign that the devil number popped up at me in the middle of reading about the existence of God, but if he does is exist, he knows I cheat at free cell. That’s all I’m gonna say about that subject matter, anyone who knows me knows my religious beliefs are very personal and I don’t like to discuss them. Which, unfortunately in Peru is not at all respected. The big 3 taboos in the US: politics, religion and money, are usually the first things brought up when you meet somebody for the first time.

Just this morning, I spent an hour talking to my host sister and her husband about how much money I made back in the states and how much everything costs. It was a really interesting conversation actually, because I learned how much they make and it really floored me. The conversation started out innocently enough. They wanted to know how the work week in the US compared to the work week in Peru. I thought it was a compelling question cause I had just read something about Frances 35 hour work week and the French president argument to change it. I knew, but not everything had really clicked, as to what kind of conversation this was going to lead to. So, I told them the work week depended on the kind of job a person has and returned the same question to them. The standard work week in Peru, is 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. I knew this, but somehow managed to forget, or at least forget how it made me feel. I told them then that the average American only worked 40 hours a week. I don’t really like talking about how rich America is and all the benefits we reap from it, but I decided that this might be a good opportunity for them to see what other parts of the world or like and the possibilities of Peru’s growth.


I explained that with most jobs, people are paid extra for every hour they work over 40 hours. I told them how in the US, it is thought that working excessively decreases productivity and happiness, while increasing the risk of injury. I also explained how this is only true for legal citizens and how there is a population of millions of illegal workers who work under considerably less desirable conditions. And we talked about family member they had (all legal) working in the United States (apparently there is a big Peruvian population living in New Jersey) and what they heard working there was like for them. They both thought American jobs sounded a lot more appealing than Peruvian jobs in general.


Somehow the conversation progressed and they told me that they each made 2 soles an hour. 75 American cents, that’s it! After working a 12 hour day they only bring home 24 soles, or 8 dollars. I knew the family I lived with didn’t have a lot of money , but now I get it. All the chicken feet and never having toilet paper make sense now. I felt guilty when I told my host sister and her husband that one hour of minimum wage in California was how much they earned in a 12 hour day. But I also explained how the cost of living in California is incredibly high. I told them honestly how much stuff costs in the united states and while it makes us seem like millionaires, we worry about money just the same as they do. I showed them pictures on my house and the pool in the back yard. I told them that I have had my own car since I was 16 (I left out that I actually had two cars) and that every member of my family has their own car. I don’t think anyone in my whole community in Peru owns a car. These things that are so common place to us in the US are so unattainable to the people I live amongst.


It makes me feel bad that I cringe at the idea of taking a cold shower or eating cow stomach. My real family is not rich by standards in the US but we are so rich in comparison to the population of the world. My dad likes to play gold and my mom likes to go to plays. We take really nice family vacations to Hawaii, Newport Beach and Spain. To us, it seems like life wouldn’t be worth living with out these things. Even when I am at site, trying to integrate and live at the same level as my community, I can’t wait till I can go into Lima and have a Starbucks. Even though I am a “volunteer” and I don’t make much money, I’ve never felt richer in my life. I recently received a few packages in the mail from family friends. I got all sorts of things like work out clothes, USB memory stick, dental floss, expensive chocolate and rainbow chip cup cake mix(cup cake tins included). I thought about the cost of the content and the price it cost to ship them. I concluded that the total amount it cost to buy and ship three presents full of goodies was more than my host sister would make in an entire year. Going back to the beginning of this entry, if God does exist, he works in pretty strange ways.