Umm... so. With that said. When I started this blog back in the day and I wrote my little profile on the right hand side that says Youth Development Volunteer in Peru from 2009 til 2011. I didn't think that that number.. 2011.. would come up on me so soon. Too soon! Aack! So soon in fact that I will be keeping you posted on my continuing foreign plans. Cuz there will be.
Right now it's summer here (which means... just no school... the weather is rainy... yay!). So I'm teaching some vacaciones utiles classes for the kiddos (communication, p.e., art and wow. Who'd a thunk it? Math!). Ok ok. So I am not actually teaching math. I scouted and found some teen helpers who actually teach it. I'm just the facilitator man. This past week we did some paper mache.. oh yeah. Very messy. But what I'm currently really excited about is Club de Mujeres Poderosas (powerful women), in which 17 teen girls and I meet up 3 times a week and tackle different themes from sexual health to how to start a little successful business (Peace Corps gives me materials! soo.. although I know practically nothing about business.. I can still teach it :) to meeting professional women and talking about future goals. Last week we got to talk to girls from Oxnard City Corps on skype! It was pretty exciting from where I was standing. To get the two groups I've been working with the last 3 years together. No importa las fronteras. We have only 3 more weeks to go, but maybe they'll want to get together occasionally during the school year too. A ver.
There are exciting things on the horizon (Peace Corps 50th anniversary, Ancash Prom, starting up the school year, Rotary Club's participation in a project in Shilla... the whole familia's visit in April...) that I'm pretty thankful for. Right now I'm off to Quechua classes. Shumaq warmi to all of you. Let's see if that grammar finally stays in my cerebro this time around.
Recent peruvian fotos will be posted on my facebook later today... Chao for now!
Abrazos long lost but FUERTES,
Em
Here's your lesson. You will have to translate it into something colloquial:
ReplyDeleteIn economics, there is no "free lunch." Everything has a cost consisting of time, raw material, capital and risk. The purpose of business is to make a profit. That is when the value of what you make (or what service you provide) is greater than the value of what it took you to provide it.
Increased wealth comes from 3 places:
1. Better technology.
2. The division of labor, i.e. trade. Everyone should focus on doing just one or a few things so they can get good and fast. Then the group will make more than if everyone worked alone.
3. The accumulation of capital such as tools, land and education. The more capital you have available, the faster you can produce and the more sophisticated your products can be. If you own capital, you do not have to rent it from someone else. In fact, you can lease it out yourself.
Whenever you earn a profit, you have your choice of consuming it, such as throwing a party, or investing it in more capital so you can make bigger profits. The key choice is whether to have fun now or wait and have more fun in the future.
* If you are not mathematically sophisticated then you should never borrow money.
* In education, you need at least 1 hard skill such as farming, welding or cooking. You can then make more money from learning any number of soft skills such as communicating, critical thinking, reading.
* Paper currency loses its value over time. It should be used only for short term savings (less than one year). Long term savings should be made in gold and silver.