OH MAN!!!

Today we ran into Jesus(pronounced HEY-SOOS)...of course there are 1,674,221 men named Jesus in Mexico but this particular "Jesus" is our Jesus. He wears a white hat, speaks "rapido Spanish", is very intense when working, and smiles in a subdued way when he is pleased about something. He is not a "normal" employee of Don Jose, our builder, but is hired when needed on his crew. For our job Jesus was here about 3/4 of the time. I would call him "the man in the hat" and Maurice always knew who I meant. You never see him without his white hat.

About 6 weeks ago Jesus was told he was no longer needed on this job. He came to us and thanked us for letting him work on our project. It brought a tear to my eye. He was one of the hardest workers we had and he was THANKING US for letting him work here. The next week we created additional "labor" by adding some stone walls around the parking area and Don Jose brought Jesus back. He is what they call an unskilled laborer. He works hard at what he is told to do but is not a skilled worker. For this reason he makes $2,000 pesos a week, or about $160. For us he worked 5 days a week, 8 to 10 hours a day so he made about $3 to $4 an hour, depending on the day. The skilled labors made between $2,200 and $3,000 pesos a week.

Now the job has ended here for all of these workers. We had a party for them and gave them an envelope with a bonus in it. The 10 guys, which we included Jesus in, that had worked here the entire time got more than the ones that worked here up until 6 to 8 weeks ago. After Jesus opened his bonus he came to our door to thank us. He had owed Maurice $500 pesos ($40) and he had this money out to pay him back. Maurice told him that he no longer owed him the money. The guy actually teared-up and I had to turn away so he did not see me cry. $40 can make a grown man cry! My word!! We are so blessed!

Strangely, all day today I kept telling Maurice to call Jesus and ask him if he could help Maurice carry all the solar panels and racking up on the roof next week. It is a two day job and Maurice cannot do it alone. Maurice said that Jesus had told him he got another job. I kept saying call him anyway....I can be a pain that way. So today in Todos Santos, we run into him. He smiles and comes to the car shaking our hands. Maurice asks him if he may be available to help him for a couple of days. He tells us that he now has a job but it is for little money. He is working 6 days a week from 7am to 3pm for $1100 pesos. OH MAN!! Can you imagine?? That is about $13 a day and about 1/2 what he made working for Don Jose! He would love to earn some extra helping Maurice but since it is far from us there is really no time.

So I start thinking of all the things we could have him do for us. We could keep him busy for at least 3 or 4 months and when we open for business maybe even longer. Yes, I know we cannot save the world but this guy has a family and is trying to make it on less that $90 a week!

We decided that we would "sleep on it" and if we still felt we could afford him and actually keep him busy we are calling Jesus tomorrow and offering to employ him for the next 3 or 4 months. We will tell him that if Don Jose can give him a job we would happily let him go back to work for him, but in the meantime he can work with us. We will pay him what he would make with Don Jose, not the $1100 pesos the person who is totally using him is paying him…or as Maurice says, “Gee some people really take advantage!”

Well since I am writing this at 1 am I guess I cannot "sleep on it". I just keep thinking of the tears in his eyes when Maurice told him his $500 peso debt was paid off....I cannot even imagine how he will react when we offer him a fair job at a wage he is used to being paid. No, we can’t "save the world" but we can try to help those in the world we live in...even if it is only one at a time.