Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Our New Friend Stephen





May 29, 2012

One of the best things about ridding the bus each day is the people you meet.  

We got on a very full bus this morning with standing room only. Hanging on the handrail next to me was Stephen. Stephen is from Haiti, has been in Peru about 10 months. He is working for a communications company in downtown Lima. He asked me if I was LDS. I looked at him with a surprised expression, discovered he had recently joined the church and was living in Musa. Musa is about eight miles up the road from our apartment and each morning Stephen takes the bus that has been redirected by the new traffic circle in front of our apartment.  I soon discovered that Stephen's office is near the same area of the Archives. Stepten offered to show us a faster way to get to our destination. What he failed to mention there is a 3/4 mile walk, at a fast shuffle between bus transfers. The above picture must be an optical illusion because, Stephen is about the same size as I am, possible a little heaver, but can take long steps that often required Kris to trot along to keep up.  So, the bus in the picture is an Express Bus, first class compared to what we normally ride, that has a designated lane on Peru's Via Expressa. Stephen's route is much shorter, but requires about a mile of walking.      

Stephen works for an American Company (billing collecting in America and Canada). He collects bad debts and speaks Spanish and English. He makes about 1000 soles a month ($375 a month) and gets a bonus of 300 soles ($113) if he collect $26,000 american dollars. He loves his job and is proud to be working for an American Company.



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