La Vida Idealist

Hello audience. You probably don’t know me because for the past four months I’ve been buried under a mountain of tortillas, entrenched by torrential rain, and beaten into cultural submission by hostile stares. Put plainly, I moved to the rural highlands of Guatemala and, for all intensive purposes, fell off the face of the Earth. So before I go into my treatise on the next decade of my poverty, I’d like to beg your forgiveness, audience, for having been so utterly negligent.

Photo from Flickr user 100Wasser

A few months ago I left my volunteer position with Ya’axché Conservation Trust in what I think was a career upgrade. I moved to Guatemala to start a position, hold your hats readers, with pay! Now, being the polite albeit devastatingly curious people that we all are, I’m sure you are dying to know what sort of pay a cherub-faced, 22-year-old know-nothing has been able to earn in this unforgiving economy.

But you probably wouldn’t ask in fear of breaking the sacred code of money-talk etiquette often seen in the West: Never ask how much. Conversely, Guatemalans will ask how much your left shoe cost you without a second of hesitation. Living in such a money-obsessed, impoverished community has been difficult and bitter, and at the increased exposure to the question “How much?” I find myself fretting for my personal financial future. How much will graduate school applications cost? How much will I make as a barista working part-time? How much will I possibly be able to make with a degree in sustainable development?

To quench your thirsting curiosity, I earn Q2000 a month, the equivalent of $250. Over the course of the next year, I’ll be making less than the cost of one semester of schooling at my university. The following year, I plan on spending ten times as much for graduate school. After that, I expect to pay more dues through internships and entry-level jobs making a pittance.  I seem to be welcoming a decade of debt, with wide open pockets.

I’ve been talking a lot about an article the New York Times Magazine published last weekend that shed light on the current predicament of us “emerging adults:” no spouse, no children, no financial independence, and no determined financial stability in sight. Though our paths are all different, what we have in common is our dwindling bank accounts and idealistic views leading us in directions that offer little pay, but great reward. Though I sometimes curse my inability to enjoy two bottles of wine and a wheel of cheese each week, it all comes back to the knowledge that I am working towards something I think is important, enjoyable, commendable, and just downright good.

Please don’t let small paychecks and missing comforts guide you away from a challenging life in the field. At the end of the day, you’ll know that you are accomplishing something grand.

Bridget Barry is currently a Program Associate with Limitless Horizons Ixil in Chajul, Guatemala. To read more about Bridget’s time abroad with limited economic means, check out her past entries or posts by other La Vida Idealist bloggers in Guatemala. For more on the financial challenges idealists face after coming home, check out Patrick Furlong’s “Dueling Realities” and Kimberly Friedland’s “The Well-Planned Life or Summoned Self?“

Latest posts by bridgeterin

• When Your Own Hypocrisy Becomes Too Much - November 29th, 2010
• Culture Shock in Central America - April 22nd, 2010
• Cooking in the Jungle: Meals Without an Oven or Refrigerator - April 8th, 2010
• When Doing Good Makes You the Bad Guy - March 25th, 2010
• "Don't get your reading material from the dump." - March 11th, 2010
• Scorpions, Tarantulas, and Rats, Oh My! - February 11th, 2010
• Yeah, Yeah, Right Now…Project Management Abroad - January 28th, 2010
• "Are You Peace Corps?" - January 14th, 2010