Living on One Dollar Page #3

It's so good in the stomach.

[ Speaking Spanish ] In our third week,

they invited us over to their home for a

small snack. But when we arrived, they

were preparing the traditional meal

of pulick, served only twice a

year for special occasions.

[ Both chuckle ] Oh!

Oh! s?

S. Claro. Claro.

Mmm. Sean, you can sit down.

Yeah.

He wants to say a few things

to the camera. Oh. S.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

Muchsimas gracias a mi hermano.

Yes.

[ Chuckles ] Our desire to repay

Anthony and rosa, not only for the

expense of the incredible food but also

their generosity, is overwhelming.

They have so little, yet they're willing to give so much.

We all agreed that, somehow, we

will save the money to cook them

a pulick dinner before we go.

We have like 60.

It's only three days.

We can just decrease our amount. We can

get like, you know, a pound and a half.

I mean, I don't think we even really need

to dip into our savings that much...

Yeah. ...At all.

That would be awesome.

If we just want to, like, not eat very much.

[ Shivers, sniffles ]

[ Rooster crows ]

I drew a low number today, so we're having some...

Struggles with how we need to

pay Anthony's family back and also pay off

our loan, which is due in three days.

So...

We drew really low numbers for four days.

I pulled four numbers in a row,

and two of them were zeros, and two of them were ones.

So amongst the four of us, we

had 12 cents a person to live on, per day.

And, you know, we woke up, and

it was market day, and we

literally have no money for food.

Open the other one now.

[ Hinges squeak ]

So this is a big pull we need

a minimum a two or higher

if we get a one no

bananas if we get a zero

we have to go talk to Anthony

and take out a loan from him.

Let's see it. It's a nine.

No way!

No! [ Chuckles ] Yeah!

Seany boy! Dude, you're the

clutchest puller in the world!

[ Giggles ] It's a mosh pit!

Whoo!

Yes! Oh, my God!

Dude, so huge.

Bananas for everyone! [ Chuckles

] We got lucky and pulled a

nine. But what if you're out of

food and you don't know the next

time money will be coming in? How do you

choose between feeding your child or keeping

them in school?

[ Water splashing ]

[ Speaking Spanish ]

Both:
S.

Both:
S.

It's... Day 28. Right?

Day 28? Day 28. Yeah.

We had started to do these really

amazing interviews around the fourth week.

And Chris and I spoke Spanish, so we were

understanding everything that was going on,

and, you know, we had started to be affected

by these stories, but Ryan and Sean

didn't speak Spanish. And they were talking,

and they were like, "when you finally"

deal with learning how to survive, it's not

so bad." No problem -- it's not that

hard, you know? We're halfway through.

I could do this for another, you

know, two years. I just got really

angry and upset because, clearly, the

people we're around, you know, they had

learned to survive. But it wasn't okay.

And it wasn't easy for them, and they had to,

like, work so hard every single day, and they

couldn't follow their dreams, because they

couldn't go to school, and 'cause they had to

provide for their family. And Chris and I

were so involved with this research that we

weren't sharing what was going on.

What were some of the

questions in general? I mean, I guess I

don't really even know what you guys were

asking. We started getting into

where all their income was coming

from and, you know, like, what skills they use

to work and what they really deal with to find

money in emergencies, and, you know [Chuckles]

their lives are so much more complicated than

our initial interviews showed. Even something

as simple as what you cook with is important.

A broken stove or cooking over an open fire

can have dramatic effects on the health of a

family, especially on the kids.

[ Baby crying ]

[ Speaking Spanish ] Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

It's incredibly hard to save up a large amount

of money for a cooking stove, but Anthony

did it with 12 of his friends by using an

innovative idea called a savings club.

Together, they each decided to save $12 every month.

And at the end of each month,

the total sum of $144 would be randomly

distributed to one of the members.

This process then repeats itself until each

person has benefited from a large sum of

money at a single time. And that large

sum of money was much more useful to them

because they could take that money and spend

it on a big-ticket item like a stove or

maybe pay for a wedding. And, you

know, that's really innovative.

[ Camera shutter clicks ] And we started talking

about how close this community was, and we

hang out with chino every day. And his mom, this

past year, got really sick, and they don't even

have enough money to, you know, get a car to go

to the hospital in town, and Anthony covered the

entire thing.

[ Speaking Spanish ] And Anthony actually

paid for them to go to the hospital.

He paid for the doctor's visits. And

the medicine. And the medicine.

Anthony can afford the loan because he's

the only one in the village who has a formal

job.

Unlike everyone else, he can count

on getting a regular paycheck.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

And while Anthony did help these other people,

like, that's still a huge strain on their own

finances. Yeah, that's where, like,

if there was an institution willing

to take on that risk and lend to someone like

chino's parents, you know, then they don't have

to put a strain on Antonio. And, you know,

not everyone has that community around them

or the people they can go to

in times of need. Hola.

And, you know, and that was

something that -- hola.

Hola. Holachino. Chris.

[ Chuckles ] What's up, chino?

Zach, hola. cmo ests?

Bien. Bien. How are you?

[ Chuckles ]

Qu bueno. Good. I am good.

You look nice.

How are you? How are you?

Good.

S. Bueno. So, yeah, not everyone

has, you know, such a tight-knit

community around them. So, if you have an

emergency like chino's parents here, like,

what are you gonna do if you don't have that

person right next to you or you don't have

the emergency funds or that community

to rely on? That's true.

Actually, temple is pretty sick at the moment.

He's got a little bit of an

upset tummy.

This is just going to make me vomit.

[ Chuckles ]

At one point, I had both giardia and E. Coli

at the same time, and, you know, that's no

good, especially when you only have two pairs

of boxers and you're sleeping, you know, on

the same mat, sharing a blanket with someone next to you.

I think Chris is really sick.

I just heard him get up. It just doesn't

sound like he's doing very well.

Dude, I think I have that like

sulfuric burp thing happening again.

[ Burps loudly ] [ Breathes deeply

] Like, I can't even push on my

stomach. [ Breathes deeply ] I

can't sleep another night like

this. We're gonna go get

Chris tested for some bacterial

infections and see if he has a parasite,

or, hopefully, it's just a stomach thing.

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