A Morning with Simone

I went to see my friend Simone in Barriada Santos today, ostensibly to look at his inoperative solar panel system for him. But, it turned into something much different.

My handy multi-meter quickly found the problem – a dead battery and lack of a charge controller, compounded by his failure to add water to the battery. We talked about his options, and concluded that since his part of the village will soon have grid electricity, it’s probably not worth the effort and expense.

As packed my tools and started to leave, Simone stopped me and asked me to sit down. Simone is the quiet, thoughtful one in the village – very bright and sensitive. So, we sat on the front steps of his house and he cleared his throat. First, he wanted to apologize for the group at a meeting we had a couple of weeks ago, where I had proposed ways they might increase their income from cacao production. A couple of the guys had just laughed at me and he felt bad about that, especially when “you are so kind to us”. Then, he wanted to explain why they had found my ideas laughable.

Before he retired back to his native village, Simone had worked at a pretty high paying government job in Panama City. As he puts it “I have lived in both worlds.” He views the “profit at any cost” and people driven to always make more money “city world” as fundamentally different from the campo. He also figured (correctly) that the US is like the city world. He saw my ideas ( fair-trade and value added) as well intentioned, but misguided and wanted to set me straight.

First of all, the locals don’t view their cacao as a business – it’s more like a hobby. It’s a fun family activity for those who happen to have cacao trees on their fincas. The extra income it brings is welcome, but not the primary objective. The notion that having the kids participate is “child labor” is absolutely ridiculous. Moreover, adding value to the crop by processing it and marketing to the tourist trade would be a lot of work and make it “not fun anymore.”

Then, he went on to explain “bastantemente”, which is both a word (literally = enough-mind or mind of sufficient) and a concept. It boils down to “I have enough – I have enough food, enough of a house, family and friends. Why would I want more? And why would I work harder to get somethings I don’t need?”. He realizes that this is very different, even foreign, to the attitude of the City or the “advanced” world. It is why campo people are so puzzled by corruption scandals that frequent the news here. “Why do these very rich people want to steal and cheat, just to get more, when they already have more than they need?” I suppose the same could be said for the 1% in the US.

It is indeed sad that we live in a society that places money and things above true happiness and satisfaction. I’m grateful and touched that Simone took the time to remind me of that.