Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller shares a candid look at life in Latin America, contrasting it with the idealized versions often presented in travel magazines and websites. He begins by introducing the show and its mission to provide an honest, realistic perspective on expat life in the region. Johnny also updates listeners on recent changes to his website, including a consultation link for expats interested in moving to Latin America or Europe. He highlights the current economic situation in Europe, suggesting that it's a good time to invest in real estate there, and recommends consulting with his friend Robert Culpepper for European property advice. For those interested in Latin America, Johnny offers his own consultation services. He also addresses the issue of vague emails from listeners asking for general advice, emphasizing the need for specificity. Johnny then responds to an email from a listener who wants to know the most effective ways to help children suffering from malnutrition in Latin America, referencing a previous story about his friend Eldon's experience with a charity in Honduras that turned out to be fraudulent.
Johnny then discusses the story of Elden, a first-world donor who contributed to a charity that claimed to support poor children in Latin America. However, Elden discovered that the charity was not as it seemed, with no actual poor children being supported. Instead, the charity was more of a PR stunt, with a focus on creating a positive image rather than genuine aid. Johnny warns listeners about donating to such charities, suggesting that many are scams and that most first-world donors are not willing to go the extra mile to verify the impact of their donations. He also highlights the reality of poverty in Latin America, noting that while there are many poor children, they are often not the ones who approach tourists for money, and that the charity's portrayal of poverty is often exaggerated.
Johnny continues the discussion on malnutrition and racial disparities in Latin America, particularly focusing on indigenous populations. He highlights that while the Ladino population (a mix of indigenous and Spanish heritage) generally has better access to education and resources, indigenous people face systemic discrimination and poverty. Johnny points out that indigenous people are often relegated to low-status jobs, such as cleaning, and are frequently malnourished. He also notes that the effects of chronic malnutrition are visible in the physical stature of indigenous people compared to Ladinos. Johnny argues that the disparity is not just economic but also cultural, with indigenous people being treated as second-class citizens. He also touches on the phenomenon of indigenous children being adopted by first-world families, which allows them to escape the effects of malnutrition and grow taller than their peers in their birth communities.
Johnny then discusses the health challenges faced by people in Latin America, particularly focusing on malnutrition and sanitation issues. He highlights the physical effects of malnutrition, such as children being significantly taller than their peers, and notes that this is a sign of a broader malnutrition problem. He also points out that poor hygiene, such as washing clothes in rivers, is common among the indigenous population, while the Ladinos, who are of European descent, have better access to sanitation facilities like cold running water and washing machines. Johnny emphasizes that the poor are more susceptible to parasites due to a lack of nutrition and poor hygiene, and that these issues are exacerbated by the fact that poor people often do not seek medical help unless they are severely ill. He also mentions the prevalence of anti-parasitic drugs in pharmacies and the role of chili peppers, garlic, and spices in combating parasites in the diet. Johnny concludes by noting that the use of these spices is more common in tropical climates where refrigeration is limited, and that this dietary habit may have evolved as a natural defense against parasites.
Johnny then discusses the health benefits of chili, garlic, and spices for early humans in Latin America, suggesting that those who consumed these ingredients lived longer and reproduced more, aligning with Darwinian principles. He contrasts this with expats and North American tourists, who are warned against eating street food due to the risk of intestinal parasites. He also addresses the issue of contaminated water in Latin America, noting that half the population drinks from municipal supplies and that bottled water is a common but expensive solution for the middle and upper classes. Johnny emphasizes the importance of addressing contaminated water as a key step in improving health for the poor in the region.
Johnny continues the discussion on water pollution and sewage dumping in Latin America, emphasizing that less than 5% of towns and cities treat their sewage before releasing it back into rivers, lakes, or oceans. He warns that swimming in beaches near towns or cities is risky due to contamination, but isolated beaches with minimal human activity are safer. He also notes that even in the first world, sewage dumping was common until the 1960s, and industrial waste was dumped into lakes and streams. Johnny suggests that seafood caught in the Caribbean, Atlantic, or Pacific, or in isolated lakes, is safe to eat, but fish from heavily polluted lakes like Lake Nicaragua should be avoided. He concludes by recommending that the best way to help poor communities is by providing access to clean water through methods like building cisterns and using gravity-fed water purification systems from the organization HELPS.
In the final segment, Johnny Mueller discusses practical ways to help the poor in Latin America, focusing on water access and education. He suggests installing a cistern to collect rainwater as a solution for those without access to municipal water supplies. He emphasizes that rainwater is cleaner than water from rivers or communal sources. However, he acknowledges that convincing people to switch from traditional water sources to purification systems requires education and awareness, especially since many are accustomed to drinking from municipal supplies. He also mentions that building a cistern is relatively inexpensive and can be done with minimal materials and manpower.
Topics
Introduction to The Expat Files, Website updates and consultation services, Economic situation in Europe and real estate investment, Advice on specific questions and email etiquette, Response to listener email about helping children in Latin America, Charity Scams, Poverty in Latin America, First-World Donors, Shoeshine Boys, Malnutrition in Indigenous Populations, Malnutrition in Latin America, Racial and ethnic disparities in Latin America and Systemic discrimination against indigenous people, Economic inequality, Cultural attitudes toward indigenous people, Adoption of indigenous children by first-world families
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:35 Website Updates and Consultation Services for Expats 00:01:06 Economic Situation in Europe and Real Estate Investment Opportunities 00:01:40 Advice on Specific Questions and Email Etiquette 00:02:36 Response to Listener Email About Helping Children in Latin America 00:04:31 The Charity's Image Over Reality 00:05:01 The Girl's Existence and Location 00:05:33 Warning Against First-World Charity Donations 00:08:52 Malnutrition in Chile and the Ladino Population 00:09:10 Education and Malnutrition in Ladino and Indigenous Populations 00:09:27 Discrimination and the Two Human Species in Latin America 00:09:48 The Status Symbol of Having a Cleaning Lady 00:11:56 Malnutrition and the Effects on Indigenous Populations 00:12:29 Genetics and the Rationalization of Indigenous Short Stature 00:13:19 Adoption and the Impact of Malnutrition on Indigenous Children 00:13:23 Malnutrition and Sanitation Issues in Latin America 00:14:19 The Double Whammy: Malnutrition and Parasites 00:15:37 The Role of Spices in Combating Parasites 00:17:41 Early Humans and the Benefits of Spices 00:18:45 Contaminated Water and Health in Latin America 00:22:12 Disgusting Statistic on Sewage Treatment in Latin America 00:23:33 Contaminated Beaches in Latin America 00:24:29 Eating Seafood in Latin America 00:25:31 Helping Poor Communities Through Clean Water Access 00:26:24 Cisterns as a Solution for Water Access 00:27:00 The Role of Education in Water Purification
Transcript
Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.
[00:03] Hi everybody, I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America. The show that tells you what it's really like to live, work, play and or retire in Latin America. I tell it just like it is, not the version they give you in those glossy travel magazines or the picture they paint for you in those international traveler websites where they're only trying to sell you something. What's it really like for expats living in Latin America? Well, if you stick around a while, you'll find out. So let's get started. Like I reported last week or was it the week before? Anyway, if you go to my website www.expatwisdom.com, you'll see we've made a few positive changes up there. By popular demand, now there's a big obvious link on that site, a consultation link and
[00:49] you can click on it and schedule an appointment to talk to me one on one for a half an hour or an hour or whatever. Or if you're talking about moving or expatriating to Europe, you can talk to my friend Robert Culpepper, who's the expert on that. Because you know, from what he tells me, there's some little known, very, very good deals on property and land. Now that the euro is crashing and burning and Ireland and Greece and Portugal and Italy are falling apart, now their bubbles are bursting. Not to mention, in the former Soviet block, you know, the Eastern European countries, a lot of very excellent properties are going at fire sales too. Because you know, in times of economic crisis like they have in Europe right now and in the States, of course, that's when real estate crashes and burns. And if you're a person with a little extra cash and you want to pick up the pieces as Europe self-destructs, sign up for a consultation with Robert Culpepper, the expert on European
[01:35] matters. But if you want to talk about everything or anything Latin American, as it pertains to your particular case, especially if you're planning on jumping off that first world treadmill and you think becoming a Latin American expat is somewhere in your future, then just sign up for a consultation with me. And you know, you can always still send individual questions to me at TheExPadFilesAtGmail.com like you've been doing all along for the past year and a half or so I've been doing these little chit-chats like this. But remember, I can only physically accomplish answering one or two of your questions at most if you send them to me by email, otherwise I'm likely to get carpal tunnel. And believe me, I get a lot of emails where people throw five or even ten questions at me at one time and it's really impossible to answer an email like that, considering my hunt and peck style of typewriting, because I never did take a typing class way back when.
[02:22] So you can send me one or two questions by email. But if your list is long, you're better off doing a telephone consult with me. So go to expatwism.com and set one up. And speaking of emails, I still occasionally get an email from someone that says, hey Johnny, I'd like to go to South America. What place do you advise I should go so I can live the good life like you? And then the email ends. That's it. I mean, that's like saying, Johnny, I'm going to Chicago. What's the best restaurant? Well, you can see how the answer to a question like that could run on for pages and pages. I mean, it would be like asking a travel agent, what's the best vacation spot in Europe? Or a fisherman? What's the best place to go fishing in the Atlantic? You get the idea. So guys and gals, when you send me those emails, try not to be so general. Be specific. Okay? Speaking of emails, here's an email worth looking at and it starts like this.
[03:09] Hi, Johnny. I don't think of myself as a do-gooder, but if I relocate to Latin America, I would like to do something to make the world a better place. So what's your opinion of the most effective practical things that people might do to remedy the situation of children growing up stunted from malnutrition in Latin America? And on a related note, in one of your programs last August, I think last year, you described how you accompanied your friend Eldon, the Canadian, who went to visit the head office of a charity that he contributed to up in Canada called Sponsor a Child or something like that. And when he visited the head office in Latin America, it turned out to be a very suspect integrity. Okay, so that's the email. Thanks for that, Robert. Yeah, so first I'd like to talk a little bit about my friend Eldon from Canada. If you remember, I talked about him going down to Honduras and visiting the head office
[03:57] of a charity that he'd been contributing to for years up in Canada, one that he'd seen on TV and in the papers showing how you could sponsor a child for 15 or 20 bucks a month. Well, he'd been doing that for a long time and getting letters and notes from a little Honduran girl he was supposed to be sponsoring. And actually, she wasn't so little anymore because he'd been sponsoring her for some years. And he wanted to actually meet her. So he came down here to Latin America and he found the place alright, but it didn't quite fit in with the surroundings. It was first world all the way with a guarded parking lot just filled with late model SUVs and even the offices of first world charities up in the States or in Europe. They would never allow that kind of thing. It would just be bad PR all around. I mean, it's supposed to be a charitable, not-for-profit organization, right? Anyway, at that luxury office, Elda discovered there were no poor kids to be found at all.
[04:43] Just a big bulletin board collage of happy faces of young kids and a bank of secretaries with late model computers that looked to him like a call center whose job it was to drum up naive first world contributors like him. Anyway, he never did find the girl he was supposed to be supporting. Oh, they said it was all on the up and up and she existed alright. She was in the files and being supported, though she was far away in the boonies right now and difficult to locate. Anyway, that was the story they gave him. And after that, Elden walked around for a few days looking like his dog had died. Not that he cared about the money so much, it was only like 20 bucks a month. But that he'd been following the progress of the young girl he was supposedly supporting. And once or twice a year, she'd be sending him letters, little crayon drawings from school, and the occasional photo. And now Elden realized that it was probably mostly just BS.
[05:31] Anyway, let that be a warning to you. Anyone out there who's donating to any kind of charity, a first world charity that is, the kind you see on TV like the ones that Sally Struthers used to do, or the ones you see in the back of newspapers or magazines like Reader's Digest and stuff, where they showed a bug-eyed kid that looks like a living skeleton, you know what I mean. Anyway, I really don't recommend that you donate to those charities based on Elden's story and a lot of other stories that I've been hearing lately. Because you know, a lot of these charities are scams and they figure a first world person is never going to do what Elden did. You know, just figure one day he's going to backpack it down to Latin America and he's going to actually find the person he's supposed to be supporting. I mean, what first world person is going to spend a couple of grand coming down here based on a $15 or $20 a month investment? Most of us just like the feel-good thought of donating some money to a charity like that,
[06:18] but we have no intention of rubbing elbows with the sweaty masses. That would be too, well, uncomfortable for the average first world person. But Elden's that kind of guy, he's like 1 in 10,000. I mean, when I was hanging out with him walking through Belize and Honduras and Nicaragua and Guatemala, he was a soft touch for every little kid that ran by that looked like a poor little rag picker. And I'm telling you, contrary to popular belief, when you're walking through the streets of Latin America, even in the poorest neighborhoods, kids do not walk up to you and ask you for money. Sure, you'll see the odd beggar now and then when you're driving your car through these areas, but things are a lot different when you're on the tourist trail. You'll always find that where gringos hang out with gringos. Begging is a real organized profession and from the minute you land at the airport until you end up at that tourist hotel somewhere on that palm-laden beach, the beggars and
[07:07] street urchins will have their spots all staked out in advance and they'll try to nick you coming and going. But like I said, when you're walking through non-tourist areas, you rarely see any of that at all. And in fact, when I was with Elden, he'd occasionally stop kids on the street and give them a half a buck if he thought they looked excessively scruffy. And I'll tell you, I've seen a lot of tourists down here, but I've never seen them do that before. It's gotta be a Canadian thing, eh? And down here in Latin America, again, off the tourist track, you can often get your shoes shined for 25 cents. And for your information in the tourist areas, it's at least a buck. The little shoeshine boys with their little black wooden kits are everywhere. Everywhere in the cities, that is. And it's kind of a rite of passage in a lot of poor families that kids start very young as shoeshine boys, like kids who are 6 or even 7 years old.
[07:53] And often, Elden would get his shoes shined for a quarter and give the guy double 50 cents. Not to mention the fact that Elden often had his shoes shined whether they needed it or not. Just to give a shoeshine kid who'd been sitting around all day with almost no business a little eating money. Because you see, these little shoeshine boys aren't working for themselves, they're bringing that money back to the family. It's like a community effort, all the kids contribute a little bit if they can, to keep the family in food. And that's why a lot of these poor kids never get to go to school. They end up very young out on the street as shoeshine boys, or selling vegetables, or pirated CDs, or rechargeable phone cards. These young kids are obligated to contribute to their families. That's just the way it's always been. And you know, Robert's email has it right. There's a high percentage of malnutrition down here with the kids.
[08:39] In fact there's quite a high percentage of malnutrition in countries with large indigenous populations like Peru, Guatemala, Ecuador, and Bolivia. And in countries with very low indigenous populations like Argentina, Costa Rica, and Chile, there's almost no malnutrition. In fact in the Ladino population, that's indigenous people mixed with Spanish blood, people who make up most of the other 50% of the population, Ladinos are generally taller than pure indigenous people and have a little bit lighter skin too. Anyway, in the Ladino group there's very little malnutrition. Which has a lot to do with the fact that kids who are Ladinos almost always end up going through primary and secondary school. They always seem to get much more education than pure indigenous people do. And even the indigenous people who do end up going to school, they end up getting a substandard education compared to the Ladinos too.
[09:27] The fact is there's a lot more discrimination down here than you're ever going to see up in the first world. It's as if most Latin American countries have two distinct human species, the Ladinos and the indigenous. And the indigenous people are generally kept in their place and the Ladinos think they're superior and they treat the indigenous like second class citizens. And it's very easy to spot this. All you have to do is look at the cleaning ladies all throughout Latin America. Ladinos do not become cleaning ladies. Indigenous people do. So these Ladinos, even poorer Ladinos by our standards, have these indigenous cleaning ladies. These second class citizens that they don't treat so well. Because you see having a cleaning lady down here is a status symbol. It means you're moving on up. And guess what? Indigenous people can't afford to have cleaning ladies.
[10:12] That is at least 99.9% of them can't. At least I've never seen or heard of one that's actually hired one. And having a cleaning lady is just not part of their culture anyway. And though I'm sure that there are some indigenous people who have some money and some wealth, some of them do own businesses and stuff, but most of them are doing business off the books. In other words, they're not registered with the government or paying taxes. Anyway, even if an indigenous person could hire a cleaning lady, they'd have to hire another indigenous person to be the cleaning lady. Because Ladinos just won't do the job. That kind of work is simply beneath them. However, in high volume tourist areas like Costa Rica and Panama, for example, you will see some Ladinos doing cleaning lady work only because the gringo dollar has jacked up the prices so high in the domestic worker sector that it's worthwhile for Ladinos there
[11:00] to take the job. Not to mention, Costa Rica is one of the only countries in Latin America that has a very small indigenous population, almost non-existent. But Costa Ricans have their hardcore prejudices and beliefs too, which always surprised the hell out of expats living down there, believe me. Because you see, the vast majority of cleaning ladies in Costa Rica aren't Costa Ricans, they're Nicaraguans, who are there illegally and obviously working for cash. And Costa Ricans are notorious for treating Nicaraguans like second class citizens. And they actually prefer to hire Nicaraguan illegals for domestic jobs, because since they're illegal, they're up to books and they can pay them a lot less. Gee, that must sound familiar to a lot of US citizens who have gardeners and cleaning ladies up in the States. So anyway, the latest statistics regarding malnutrition down here in Latin America are
[11:46] that about one quarter of all the children born down here are chronically malnourished. And that's not just for one little snapshot in time, that's all through their childhood years. And that statistic applies mostly to indigenous populations down here, since they are by far the most impoverished, about half or more of them living on two or three bucks a day. And you can see the effects of it all around you. It's obvious. The indigenous people are always so much shorter and leaner than the Ladinos. And you might hear a Latin American comment on this from time to time when you had a party. They'll say the indigenous culture are traditionally shorter. They've always been that way. Way back to the Mayans and the Aztecs and the Incas. Just go to the museums and check out the skeletons. You'll see they're short, just like the indigenous people are today. It's in their genetics. Now, you'll hear that rationalization a lot.
[12:32] However, in the last 10 or 20 years, there have been a lot of indigenous adoptions going on where first world families make deals with adoption agencies and lawyers down here to get a kid. So in the last decade or so, there have been a lot of indigenous and Ladino kids adopted and brought up to the United States to live with their new adopted families. And most of these kids are adopted when they're very small, way before the effects of chronic malnutrition can ever set in. And you know, in talking to a pediatrician down here, he told me that when an indigenous baby is adopted and brought up to the United States, almost always when they reach teenage years up in Cleveland, they come back down on a vacation to connect with their real brothers and sisters and family and stuff. And that pediatrician told me that generally, the adopted kid is three, four or even five
[13:19] inches taller than the rest of the kids in the family that are in his or her age group. Which is a sure sign that there really is a huge malnutrition problem down here. But it's not just a malnutrition problem, it's a sanitation problem too. The poor and the really poor down here are not hygienic at all. I still see when I'm driving along on the hinterlands, people washing their clothes in the rivers. That's very common down here, but not with the Ladinos, the people who've got some European blood in them. They're always in a higher socioeconomic class than the indigenous people. And even if they are poor, they have cold running water at least. And the Ladinos have washing machines, whereas the indigenous people often do their clothes by hand, whether it's in a river or in the Pila, that little cement wash basin that everybody has outside the house. If you've ever been down here for any length of time, you'll know what I'm talking about. It's an outside wash basin with cold running water called a Pila, P-I-L-A.
[14:08] And here's another thing, because at least half the population of Latin America is totally unhygienic, as a Latin doctor in general practice once told me down here, the lower classes are just loaded with parasites. So when there's a shortage of good nutrition and you've got parasites, well then the poor people have a double whammy coming down on them. But since poor people don't go to the doctor unless they're half dead, it's rare that doctors treat the average guy for parasites. Though if you go to the pharmacy, you'll see right on hand at the cash register, something that you'll never see in the first world, anti-Amoeba medicine. And a nice variety of strangely named anti-parasitic drugs too. Because you see, amoebic dysentery is so prevalent in the poorer populations, everyone seems to come down with it eventually. And I should mention it's pretty popular with the tourists too, who like to eat that food
[14:54] off the street that looks so good, but it's been prepared totally unhygienically. But the average tourist doesn't notice that, he just sees the end result, and it does often look quite good. Especially to the backpacker tourists, who can save maybe 50% on a cost of a meal if he eats off a kiosk on the street, instead of going to a restaurant. Not to mention, if you eat from a kiosk on the street, you don't have to tip. Which is another big plus for backpackers, and of course German tourists in general. So according to some doctors I know down here, about half the population of Latin America or more, are harboring various species of intestinal and gastric parasites. And of course, they don't even know it. But there is one thing in the Latin American diet that keeps those little beasties in check. It doesn't kill them, but it stops them from taking over completely. And that is, chili pepper, garlic and hot spices.
[15:40] Now here's a little something you didn't know. If you look at a map of the world that's plotted out to show, where the most chili and hot spices are consumed, you'll find that that map exactly matches tropical climates and the places with the warmest temperatures, and the places with the least amount of refrigeration. And it's no coincidence that the places where people eat the least amount of spices and chili peppers and garlic, are in places like the Scandinavian countries, Canada, Siberia, England, Ireland, Greenland, Iceland, and all the northern countries. But down here in Latin America, and in most of the tropical climates in the world, they put spices and chili and garlic in everything. In fact, if you go to a big street market in Latin America, during certain times of the year, you'll see rows and rows of chilies and spices that you've never even seen up in the first world. They don't even exist up there.
[16:27] We don't even know about them. It's the same thing with fruits and vegetables. Because most of Latin America has three or four growing seasons, there's such a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, it's astounding sometimes. In fact, I was shocked myself when I discovered that in Honduras alone, they have five different kinds of mangoes. And where I grew up in Chicago, with Piggly Wiggly AMP and Jewel Tea food stores, those were the big chains. Only once in a great while would they have mangoes. And we always thought there was just one kind of mango in the world, and it only showed up on the shelves about a month and a half each year. So basically if you think about it, the rationale is this. People who live in warm and hot climates where things spoil quite rapidly, needed something early on in these regions in their diets to keep the number of internal parasites down. And somehow by hook or crook or luck or experiment, they found out that high doses of chili, pepper,
[17:14] garlic, and spices did the trick. Or maybe they never really knew that that stuff was anti-parasitic. But people who ate that stuff lived longer and had more babies. It's like when you observe certain animals like horses, cows, or even dogs, sometimes they'll eat dirt or plants that are normally not in their diet, to pick up some vitamins and minerals they might be deficient in. And how do they know when and where to do that? And which plants have the right minerals and ingredients? Who knows. But I'm sure we'll find out as science marches on. And I'm sure that's exactly what happened to early humans that settled in these parts. The ones that ate a lot of garlic and chili and spices, they lived longer, healthier, and reproduced more. You know, Darwinism. No offense to you clueless creationists out there. But based on science, I believe that's the only plausible explanation there is. So down here anyway, loading up on chili, garlic, and spices, well that's what everybody
[18:02] does. Everybody that is except us expats. And I'll tell you what, there are the odd Americans up north that I've known, pure Anglo-Saxon types without a drop of Latin blood in them, who say they're nuts about peppers and they'll put them on practically anything, the hotter the better. Or so they say. And they'll even have contests and bets as to who can eat the most and the hottest. I'm sure you've got a few friends like that, and I'll bet they're all guys too. Yep, even the most timid, nerdy Anglo-Saxon guy sometimes shows a little machoism. But I'll tell you what, these guys are strictly amateurs. Get them down here to Latin America once, and every 12 year old school girl will run rings around a North American guy in a hot pepper contest. I'll bet the farm any day on that. So anyway, we've established the fact that half the population of Latin America or more are infected with intestinal parasites, but they're keeping them in check with high doses
[18:49] of chilies, garlic, and spices. So where does that leave us North American tourists and expats? Well all that is of course, is a warning against eating that street food. Because if you pick up amoebas or intestinal parasites, well that always makes me think of what General George Patton said to his troops when they invaded Italy in World War II. He said, soldiers, look out for the local food now, it's liable to go through you like crap through a goose. So the local indigenous and poor population of Latin America, that 50% that do not have clean water, and who almost never go to a real doctor, they have two problems really, the malnutrition problem and the parasite problem. Which brings us back to Robert's email, where he asks, what can we do for the poor people down here? Well I think the easiest thing you can address is the contaminated water problem, which the
[19:36] World Health Organization says causes at least half of all the sicknesses down here. And the facts are that about half of Latin America, middle class and upper, drink bottled water or filtered water. And we're not really discussing here the merits of bottled water, which I think stink, and they stink all over the world, in the first world too, not just in Latin America. But it's better than drinking tap water, that's for sure, at least it looks better. You can take bottled water and pour it in a glass and actually see through it. Whereas like expat Eddie says, a lot of times the municipal tap water down here looks like a urine sample with floaters in it. So anyway, you got half the population of Latin America, that's 250 million people, drinking that contaminated stuff right from the municipal water supply. Because half the population cannot afford bottled water. And by the way, people who do buy bottled water for their families, buy it in 5 gallon
[20:25] jugs like they do in the States. It's called a Gade Phone down here. That's what they call a 5 gallon jug. And you pay maybe 12 bucks for that jug and you don't own it, it's a deposit when you first get one. And from then on, you just trade it for a filled one when the guy comes around and makes those water deliveries like once a week. You can get that 5 gallon refill for anywhere from 2 to 3 bucks, depending which water company you're hooked up with. But you can also buy it in the grocery and convenience stores in the 600 milliliter which is a 20 ounce bottle. And one of those will cost you 40 to 60 cents, US. Which is why you almost never see a lower middle class or an indigenous person carrying a bottle of water like that around unless someone gave it to them. Because remember, down here in Latin America where the minimum wage is like between 7 and 10 bucks a day, if you extrapolate that to the minimum wage up in the United States,
[21:12] which is like around 50 bucks a day, you're still not going to see anybody making minimum wage like that up in the first world buying bottled water on a regular basis because up there it could be up to 3 or even 4 bucks a bottle. So if you make minimum wage in the states or down here, you just don't buy bottled water. It's too expensive. And then of course you got the designer bottled waters, but we won't get into that except to say that down here in Latin America there are in the wealthier sections of town and at the higher end restaurants, first world style designer bottled water, including Evian and Pellegrino water. But you're only going to find 1 or 2% of the population down here that'll actually buy that stuff. Only rich Latins and their entitled kids, the ones that go back and forth to Miami a couple times a year on shopping sprees, well that 1 or 2% of the population are the only ones that know that there even is such a thing as designer water.
[22:00] Meanwhile half the latin population is drinking contaminated water from a tap, a lake, or a river. And that's the same lake or river of course that they wash their clothes in, throw their garbage in, and let their raw sewage flow right into. And by the way, here's a disgusting statistic you can talk about at your next dinner party. Did you know that less than 5% of Latin American towns and villages and cities treat their sewage before they actually dump it right back into the lake, river, or stream that it came from initially? That's why throughout Latin America it's not a very good idea at all to go swimming on a beach that's near to or within visual distance of a town or city. But if you're on a beach and you only see a few houses and a hotel or two, then it's alright. And if you're at a beachfront location and you want to find out what the water quality is really like, just ask your hotel manager if every hotel and business is treating the
[22:48] sewage up and down the strip. He knows and he'll either give you a straight answer or he'll hem and haw. If he's hemming and hawing, well, don't go in the water. And by the way, if he says there's a government ordinance that requires everyone to treat their outgoing sewage, that's actually an evasion too to make you feel good. Because all throughout Latin America, those ordinances do exist. Like I said before, Latin American governments adopt first world laws, codes, and legislation all the time. However, they almost never have the money or the manpower to enforce that stuff. So don't let anyone try to convince you otherwise. So the question is, are beaches dirty and polluted in Latin America? What about the beaches in high volume tourist areas like Costa Rica, Panama, and Cancun? I mean, part of going down there is hitting the tropical beaches, right? In a word, yes, they're contaminated.
[23:35] Unless, like I said, those beaches are isolated and far enough from a city town or a village that you can't see a lot of human activity close by. Because I tell you, down here in Latin America, it's customary to dump your raw sewage right into lake streams and the ocean. And however disgusting that might sound to you, just remember that until about 1960, the rest of the first world did exactly that too. Plus, big manufacturing and industrial companies like Alcola Aluminum dumped their industrial waste into first world lakes and streams too. And that's why, as I was growing up, we were told never to eat fish out of Lake Michigan. Even though the lake was loaded with fish, even giant ones like Chinook salmon. So back then we just didn't eat the fish. But the poor folks did. They went out on the lake and caught fish and ate them. They did it all the time, no matter what the warnings were.
[24:22] Why? Because if you had the time to go out and catch them, they were free. Which begs the question, should you be eating seafood that's been caught in Latin America? Well, I say definitely yes. As long as it's caught in the Caribbean, the Atlantic, or the Pacific. Or in an isolated lake where there's not many people around. But forget about fish from the river or a lake that's got a few cities around it. Like for example, Lake Nicaragua. Now it's a huge lake, but it's terrifically polluted. And I wouldn't touch anything that's caught in that lake. In fact I don't know how anything could live in that lake, but it's teeming with life. In fact some environmental studies have shown that anywhere from 25 to 50 tons of raw sewage are dumped into that lake every day. And of course there are strict laws against it, but the government's corrupt and critically short of manpower. So when a government inspector does come by, which is almost never, instead of fixing the
[25:10] problem, you give him a hundred bucks and he goes away for a couple of years. And the indigenous poor people around that lake drink the water. They always have. And they eat the fish too, because they've got the time to go fishing and it's free. Okay so back to Robert's initial question, how can you help these poor people out? Well you know, in my mind the best thing is not to give them food or money, the best thing you can do is give them access to clean waters. So they don't have to drink polluted lake water, or the disgusting liquid that comes out of municipal water supplies. The first step is easy. You show them how to catch the water runoff on their little houses, show them how to build a backyard underground cistern with concrete and rebar and a couple of coats of the right waterproofing stuff. Then you contact this organization called HELPS, H-E-L-P-S, and you buy a few of those gravity feed water purification systems that are so cheap and effective.
[25:59] You see people using them once in a while out in the compo, the countryside, and they only cost about $30 each. And these things are practically indestructible, and they're gravity feed which means you don't have to use any power at all. You just put the crappy water in the top and the pure water collects in a 5 gallon drum at the bottom. And it keeps making that pure filtered water as long as you add raw water at the top. And one of these things can take care of a family of about 6, and the little ceramic filter element can last for years though you have to show them how to take care of it. So that's my suggestion on how you could immediately help the poor down here. And that cistern I talked about is just to collect rainwater off the roof. And that's for people who aren't connected to city municipal water, the people that have to go down to the river to get theirs or to a communal water supply in a little town
[26:44] or a village. And by the way, that rainwater is going to be pretty pure, a lot purer than they'll ever get from a municipal water supply down here or from a lake, river, or stream. But a cistern like that will take a few days to build, some manpower, and cost maybe $100 in cement, block, and materials. But the other problem down here is education. The poor people, and of course that includes the ones on minimum wage, they're so used to drinking from municipal water supplies and such that they might not easily switch over to using one of those 5 gallon water purification systems I just spoke about. You have to kind of get them up to speed on why it's necessary to use something like that. Though I'll admit it doesn't take much convincing when you hold a reddish green glass of tap water up to the light and you see quite a few tiny wriggling floaters in it. Once you've pointed that out, it's a pretty easy sell.
[27:38] You've been listening to The Expat Files, living in Latin America, coming to you each week from somewhere south of the border. And don't forget you can email me on anything at all about Latin America, The Expat Files at gmail.com. Once again, The Expat Files at gmail.com. See you next time. Nos vemos!