Livin´ just enough (Ken)

It is odd how some people scratch out a living. Here are two people I have encountered on two consecutive days.


This first guy sells socks on the 110 colectivo. I have seen him the past two days. Now, selling socks on a city bus is a strange enough way to make a living, but this guy really has it rough.


Nobody here wears socks. Admitedly, this is not a great picture, but take a look at the people on the colectivo. Nobody is wearing socks.

It´s like trying to sell snow shovels in Hawaii, or compassion to a republican. They have no use for it and wouldn´t know what to do with it if they did. Yet, here he is, two days in a row, on the same bus route, working the crowd, and selling the socks.





Now this old guy plays his violin at the corner of Guido and Montevideo every afternoon. When to foot traffic is slow, he wanders into traffic and plays into open car windows.

You can see that sack he has slung over his shoulder. It is full of monedas. This guy does pretty well. I´m not saying he is paying the mortgage with this gig, but, from the looks of his moneda sack, I am guessing this guy takes in $30 pesos a day. That´s about $200 a week. Which, I believe, is above the prevailing wage. It is almost what the police make.

There are other interesing jobs here that I am investigating.

Mate update . . .Mate update . . .Mate update . . .Mate update . . .Mate update . . .Mate update . .


I have been told that by my friend and neighbor in the US, Maria Eugenia, and my former student, Tom, that I made a grave error in my mate experimentation. I did not properly cure my mate. I am, as I write, curing it. I will give the mate another try mañana with some fresh mate after I properly cure my mate. I know, it´s a bit confusing, the drink, the herb, and the vessel from which it is drunk are all called the same thing.