wow

after lunch today i sat and talked with Adolfo for quite a long time. i asked about his daughter's job; she works at the Santo Domingo hotel at the front desk. he openly told me that her pay is about Q100 per day. i asked how much the average salary is here in Guatemala and he said it is approx. Q14o0. per month. that equals to be about $186 (approx. $6 per day). that's ridiculous! i asked him if people can live off that and he said no. only if they live in really tiny houses provided by the government or in camps or farms. crazy. i knew it was meager, but didn't know exactly HOW meager until today. to say the least, i was shocked.

anyways, despite all of that, we had a very nice conversation mostly in spanish about work, The Karate Kid, learning English, and other things. it was very nice and the longest we've talked together since i've been here because i could actually speak and understand what he was saying, for the most part. :-)