Living on One Dollar Page #4

Today, in town, we found out that

Chris has some parasites in his stomach.

It's called giardia -- giardia, I believe.

And it's, like, lmng in my

small intestine in here. And it causes, like,

excessive bloating and stomach pressure.

[ Speaking Spanish ] Doscientos quetzales.

The medicine is 200

quetzales. So even if people could

afford to get tested, it's incredibly

expensive to actually get the medicine.

There's no way we could pay

that cost. I have to use medicine

that we brought in case of emergency.

[ Siren wailing ] If we can't budget for

a simple sickness, what will we do in

the case of a more serious problem?

Just two months before we

arrived, hurricane Agatha smashed through Guatemala.

Disaster workers in Guatemala

say at least a dozen people are dead.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

[ Speaking Spanish ] [ Speaking

Spanish ] The tropical storm Agatha

slammed into its pacific coast

Saturday.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

If you've lost everything, how do you

get the money to get back on your feet?

How do you begin building a lump sum to start a business?

We wanted to see if getting a

loan from a traditional bank was

even an option for our neighbors.

Okay, so, you're gonna have to put the

camera down initially, I think, unless you

want me just, like, through the

door and then put it down. Yeah.

Buena, Buenas.

We can't take photos inside. So, um...

Are you, uh, going for the, uh,

discreet film? Yeah.

Yeah, sweet.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

Let's get out. Let's get out. Let's get out. Let's get out.

That was highly illegal to be

doing. So, I tried to see if we

could get a 3,000-quetzale loan.

And the problem is we need all of these other items.

We need a receipt of our

electricity bills. We need an N.I.T. Number,

which she said costs a bunch of money

to get. We need a copy of the amount

of money we're making, which I

don't think we can get if we have an informal job.

Bills from the last three

months, two people who will sign for us, and

then we need to be able to sign our name, too.

There's no chance we could get a loan

from that bank. There's just no way.

We visited rosa again to see

if there were any other options.

Grameen provides reliable savings accounts

and loans designed to empower the poorest

of the poor to improve their

lives.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

With a loan of just $200, rosa was able

to start her own weaving business.

It was so huge to see the potential for

what even the simple access to credit can do

in the lives of our neighbors, of

our close friends. Ah, s. Oh.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

[ Light laughter ]

When a grameen borrower receives a loan,

they also commit to opening a long-term

savings account, a safe and a convenient

way to build up a large sum of money.

We found that beyond using a loan or savings

account to start a business, our neighbors

were using them to absorb shocks and

make investments around the house.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

These financial services, such as microfinance,

they go far beyond just providing extra

capital. They really shape the family.

And they have these side effects

of empowering women.

Finally, we have rbanos. We have grown our rbanos.

And now we have tons and tons of

rbanos. What happened is

there's an explosion of rbanos.

Instead of selling our radishes, we're

giving them out as gifts to thank the people

we've interviewed. These radishes represent

a new source of income for us, one

that could move us closer to $2 a day.

While that still doesn't seem

like much, it would double our livelihood.

And it's kind of those small,

incremental changes that actually have such

a profound effect on people that are lmng

at that level.

And, you know, I feel like that will have such

an impact on the next generation of that family,

that it's really there that we'll

see progress out of poverty.

[ Up-tempo music plays ]

[ Speaking Spanish ]

So, after all of this research, we had

saved up the whole time for this pulick

dinner.

It was just this amazing moment, and that

was the last day that we were there.

A little bit of Monica in my

life a little bit of Erica by my

side a little bit

of Rita's all I need

a little bit of Tina's what I see

a little bit of Sandra in the

sun we wanted to convey just,

like, how appreciative we were

of what they had done for us. Not only from,

you know, what they had shared with us, but

being our friends and, you know, building a

relationship with us, and in many ways teaching us and

accepting us as a friend instead of just, you

know, a foreigner. mambo number five!

Aah!

What can I do as an indmdual?

That's the hardest part about

it, and what we were talking about last night, is...

That there is no one answer, you

know? That we've poured, you know,

$2.5 trillion into international

development trying to end poverty, and a

lot of times it's just made things worse.

But, like, that's what we're trying to prove

so much right here is the power of partial

solutions that, like, you know, there's more

people who are not lmng in poverty than there are

who are lmng in poverty. Like, each

indmdual can affect and help a single other

indmdual. We can change the world.

Hello.

Hello. How are you?

Good. Thank you.

How are you? I'm good. Thank you.

What is your name?

My name is Carlos. What is your name?

My name is Chris.

It's nice to meet you. It's

nice to meet you. [ Both laugh ]

[ Speaking Spanish ]

Good morning. All: Good morning.

How are you?

All:
How are you?

[ Speaking Spanish ]

How are you? All: Good.

Good. S.

What... ...ls...

...ls...

...your... ...Your...

...Name?

...name? [ Speaking

Spanish ] What is your name?

I now have a much deeper respect

for someone lmng at that level.

I personally -- I lost 20 pounds in just two months.

And I got to go home and

rehabilitate, but what if that's someone's life

where they live like that day in and day out,

with no nutrition and not an adequate amount of food?

It was something that we

could never have, you know, imagined.

It was something we had to live.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

[ Speaking Spanish ]

Graciastone. Ohh, s.

Muchas gracias.

Oh, Zach! Can we have it? Can we have it?

Look, it's a chicken!

Can we have it, Zach? I

really -- [ Dog barking ]

[ Laughs ]

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