Last Sunday, Easter Sunday, I spent some time at the pool here with some of the neighbours.
My youngest son was sitting with two people, eating their potatoe chips, and chatting away. Just like he always chats with just about anyone. Believe me, the whole neighborhood probably knows everything about us! And possibly also things we don't even know because he makes stuff up as he goes, or explains things in a way they sound much different than they are. But that's OK. The people around here love his energy.
Anyway, I got into a conversation with the people he was hanging out with. They were two friends who knew each other from work, and happened to be from the same city, Puebla, not far from Mexico city.
The man had his two daughters with him. They don't have a pool at their house, so they decided Easter would be best spent with a friend who did.
While the kids were splashing away in the water, they offered me tequila. I didn't really want to drink anything but he insisted. I asked how they usually drank it, if they took it as a shot like many other people do but he shook his head and said that here, people drink that stuff slowly, not like a wild tourist hehe.
This was good news to me, because I wasn't planning on getting drunk on a Sunday afternoon.
Anyway, trailing off here...
So we ended up having a nice chat, the three of us, and then they told me they'd been working at the Hilton Hotel in Tulum but had just been fired the day before. What a nice thing to do just before Easter huh? Those big corporations...
I said that they have enough money to keep good people, so why do they do this, it's not like they're going bancrupt. They told me that it was quite normal in the region, that they hire people for three months and then kick them out. Well, isn't that just peachy?
The woman, Caro, told me that she now has 10 days to find a new job or she's going to have to go back home to Puebla, since she has a ticket booked and would be losing money otherwise.
Well, not if I can help it you're not!!
I like my new-found friends, so I used the opportunity to tell her about Hive. She likes the whole concept, and we agreed to sit down this week to explain things to her.
Of course, making enough money to sustain herself in Playa with Hive won't be an overnight thing, so I asked her if she'd teach the expat kids here in Playa Spanish if there's any interest.
Starting with mine!
She was very enthusiastic, said she loves kids (which I had already noticed) and said she'd taught Spanish and English before, so she was definitely up for it.
I got a bit bolder (no, it wasn't the tequila) and asked her how much she had been making at the Hilton, so we could see if we could match at least that, for her to be able to stay here.
What she said shocked me...
950 Pesos a MONTH. Working 6 days a week!
That's around USD$50.00... OMG!!!
To the Hilton company: SHAME on YOU! Charging people hundreds, if not thousands of dollars for a stay in your WAY overpriced hotels. And you can't even pay your people, who make sure you can even exist, a reasonable wage. I think we should all keep this in mind next time we're booking a holiday. Not that I ever stayed in the Hilton, but just sayin'.
We agreed to a price, 100 pesos per child, per hour of Spanish lessons. If she'd only teach mine, one hour a week, she'd already have more than what she was making there.
So I'm going to do her one better, and posting in all the groups I'm in, to see if there's more interest.
I'm on a mission now! Spanish lessons & Hive to keep my friend in Playa! Hive is spreading here in Mexico guys!!
As an affiliate with ledger, I receive a percentage of the sales generated through this link