What? I could buy a motorcycle?

We head to the States on Thursday. There are a lot of things you have to do when preparing to leave for an extended time, but the most important for us is to make sure somebody looks after our dogs. Quincho is a young kid (just turned 20) who has been a great friend. We spend a lot of time with him and he is at our house a lot. He also chops the grass once a week with a machete.

Our dogs are really comfortable with him, and he likes to play almost as much as my Boxer. We have left before for short periods of time and he was the logical choice to watch the dogs. It costs him Q5 each way to get to our house. The deal is that he comes to the house in the evening, feeds the dogs, and sleeps in some hammocks we have hanging in the patio. In the morning he feeds the dogs again and heads home.

We pay him the very, very good rate of Q100 a night. That is how much I pay my lead construction worker per 10 hour work day, and Quincho gets to sleep as best as he can for the majority of the time.

I was explaining that this would be around Q3,000/month while we are gone. It is a small price to pay to keep our dogs alive and have somebody watch our house at night so that our neighbors don't steal everything.

He was telling me all the things he was going to buy with his money, thinking in terms of just Q3,000. He has never had that kind of money before, and was listing the normal things like a stereo and cell phone.

It was then that I stopped him and mentioned that if he would save the money, in just three months he could buy a motorcycle. The thought had never occurred to him. The biggest problem his village faces as far as keeping a steady job is transportation. To head to the big city to get a job costs Q40 round trip, and the average job for an unskilled worker is around Q50. However, motorcycles get much better gas mileage, and carpooling would cut his costs in half.

So we went motorcycle shopping. I had to explain that after the cost of the motorcycle he would have to pay for plates, and a helmet, and a jacket. Also have money to repair a flat or change the oil.

Quincho's biggest problem is holding onto money. Even if he could stop himself from spending the money, as soon as he gets home one of his siblings or his mom would ask for the money, so we had to set up something else. I will pay Quincho Q1,000/month and set aside Q2,000/month until he has the money saved up. Then when he gets the Q8,000 needed to buy the motorcycle we will go and buy it.

Now out of the Q1,000/month, 300 will need to be spent on daily transportation. And as much as he calls me, another Q100 will go towards phone minutes, leaving him just Q600 to live on each month.

It may not sound like much, but Quincho still lives with his mom (his dad was killed by "the army" during the war). Right now he lives on Q400/month income of which most goes towards buying things for his friends or splurging on fried chicken, so the biggest challenge will be saving the Q300 for bus fare. If he spends it he will just have to make the 12km trip on foot.

I will be sending the money through Western Union from the States.