[Music] the sweet eggs [Music] filming my name is Chris and I grew up just outside of New York City this is Zach and he's a close friend of mine from Seattle foreign we've grown up with very similar lives so the houses we were born in our families the awkward middle school phase Sports we played and these are the things we did for fun [Music] I met Zach during my first year at college and we quickly became close friends our lives are fast-paced and these are the things that we're used to seeing every day [Music] okay [Music] this is Chino he is 12 years old and lives in a rural Village in Guatemala he lives in extreme poverty on less than one dollar a day how can we begin to understand what his life is like about what it means to live every day with no clean water little food and poor shelter and just like Chino there are over 1.1 billion people around the world that survive on one dollar a day Zach and I study International Development in school but there are some things that a textbook just can't answer so we're creating a plan to spend our summer living on only one dollar a day in a rural Guatemalan Village in Chino's Village [Music] why do it I mean I think it's just an amazing opportunity to learn for myself what it really means to live under a dollar day which coming from this reality I can't really say I have any idea I love you I love you too we're bringing along two filmmakers [Music] setting out to better understand the reality of extreme poverty firsthand let's do this blue [Music] we're beginning our journey in Guatemala City with a six hour ride on the back of a crowded chicken bus [Music] we are headed to the Village of Pena Blanca that's representative of rural poverty in many parts of the world in these remote areas of Guatemala 7 out of 10 people live under the poverty line [Music] this is that you're hitting stuff there well I think I think we've got a boundary of like a big rock right here so this might have to be our Edge can be chipped away yeah okay why is it going out are you pulling it too hard too hard no sad news eight weeks oh God I cannot believe it came together this is still one of those ideas that we would talk about and never do well we're here audio recording filming filming well we're here in the rural Highlands in the small village of Pena Blanca there are about 300 people living here most of whom are Mayan most of the people only spoke a Mayan dialect called kachiko and it was impossible to learn [Music] we want to live as close as possible to the reality of poverty so we're replicating a few key aspects of it our budget for the trip is one dollar a day each for 56 days but instead of giving ourselves one dollar every day we're making our income unpredictable this way we do not know when we'll get paid we're doing this because many of our neighbors are employed informally as day laborers or Farmers so they never know when they'll get paid or how much they'll make [Music] we're simulating this by taking our total budget of one dollar a day each and splitting it into random numbers between zero and nine [Music] then every morning we'll pick a number out of a hat if we pick a nine we make nine dollars that day you got a nine or is the six he's good a second aspect of poverty we want to simulate is the process of starting our own business so we're taking out a loan of 125 dollars to pay for somewhere to live and for a plot of land to grow radishes on our small loan is part of a service for the poor called microfinance Zach and I have heard both good and bad things about these Banks but wanted to see firsthand if they were helping in Pena Blanca both from our neighbors and by taking out a loan ourselves this means that every 15 days we'll have to pay back small installments of 6.25 or else have to default on our loan [Music] I mean we've got 1 312 quetzales that's how much we have left yeah so it's chicken thousand eggs um yeah I mean out of that we can get I mean if we buy a chicken out of that that's do or not buy a chicken on that I think we should buy a chicken out of that no dude like it doesn't even like chickens don't like automatically lay eggs don't have money for feed and we can buy like fruit or anything else that's so much better for us okay we'll research we'll research the chicken okay but like dude like chicken eggs we're like if our chicken doesn't lay eggs [Applause] okay but really we're gonna get water oh dude there's a bug in there Sean you should check this out that's actually how much stuff is in there hey we have a water source but if we can actually grow radishes potentially in time because that sort of switch our idea back walks over there I still don't know how to really grow radishes like anything depends on like the soil content which we have no idea about like it depends on like how much fertilizer we need like like you need you just need to know how to farm and we just like don't I mean we could wing it and try and help that it works but like yeah yes [Music] it says [Music] oh no oh six one of my questions was were the people in living extreme poverty like really thinking about how they manage money or was it this survival mode and it's like just trying to scrape together anything they have just to feed their children [Music] [Music] oh my gosh [Music] firewood is probably the most expensive thing that we were that we were buying in our budget we are living on the line on the edge always being able to drop into a really bad situation all right foreign pounds of black beans gives us 1600 calories one half pounds of yellow rice gives us 2 000 roughly but still like 3 600 calories split amongst four people is not good enough for our daily value thank you Zach fell flat on his ass after every time we stand up for some reason like Get huge head rushes I've almost passed out like today probably like three times and I don't know if that's a lack of nutrition or what the deal is but Zach actually went for it today we had our first full-on full-on fall and when he came to he was only speaking in Spanish I'm used to eating a lot I'm used to being active a lot but when you're not eating anything when you're eating in like 500 calories you become incredibly lethargic you have zero energy to do anything [Music] thank you very welcome foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign this is only my second week actually in Pena Blanca and I feel like we're already showing signs of being worn down and dejected we all have these pulgas we all kind of got destroyed on our dirt floors [Music] and you know that was that was the point where I was you know like you know like I want to go home like I need I need to get out of here like why am I doing this and we were eating better than a lot of the people in the community Jose Enrico just brought us a gift he wrote us a letter does he want it he wants us to spend the classroom yes Jose with me Los Angeles [Music] getting yourself [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay [Music] absolutely nuts did you see that Madness that was 315 kids playing with like six different balls at the same time and I don't know what's up Carlos um and I don't know how many games and like the snacks were distributed but that was nuts that was nuts how fun yeah we really didn't know who he was initially that he was kind of just the kid that was always around and he was just like so eager to learn how SI perfecto it turns out Chino's family couldn't afford the 25 cost of books and supplies for school they had a family of eight that lived in a single room they no longer had electricity because they couldn't pay for it you know his father never knew when he was going to work or not because he worked as a day laborer and Chino who was 12 had to work in the fields foreign we'd see him coming walking up the mountain with this thing wrapped around his head and like a huge bundle of like logs and sticks behind him at one point Chris asked Chino like you know if you could do anything what would you be and she and Chino's response was you know I'm going to be a farmer and you know Chris was like you know like what would you be if you could be anything and I mean he was like I'd be a pro soccer player but at 12 years old Chino had accepted the Fate that he was going to be a farmer boys [Music] Chino like most of the people here speaks kachikal and only a few words of Spanish [Music] in English as avocado avocado oh comida food food mismo yeah I mean I think I completely saw myself in a lot of them you know I was like eager to learn when you're like you're like so excited about building little things outside of our house and you know that's what I did for my childhood and realizing that it is the situation that they're in that's holding them back not who they are this putty Circle head the more stars how how are you see is [Music] you ravenous or growing I know I'm gonna pay off my finance loan I'm gonna eat more it's gonna happen man I can sense it already very clumpy though they are really clumpy that's bad right everything about a banana brings me joy here you peel it back it's naked it's a naked fruit it's vulnerable I just take a bite and savor it each time like it's the best bite of banana I'll ever take every single time I just make sure like the top of the banana is always even after oh yeah teeth looks kind of indented like this yeah so then you gotta play the game and like reverse the bite oh nice yeah so that's even you know like that's it slows down your eating too um as economics Majors Chris and I were really interested in how did a person living under a dollar a day manage their money so we're asking people questions like how much money do you make what are your expenses where do you save money do you have any outstanding loans and these are you know these are really personal questions for for anyone foreign I think the first week were there he was like the first growing up from the community to come to our house introduce himself you know he was so excited to meet us [Music] [Music] I don't know that's it just 24 and 20 years old Anthony and Rosa already managed a household of eight people [Music] as a family they survive on a dollar 25 each per day to pay for not only food but larger costs of a new baby their kids education and repairs to their house his wife is 20. morning she has three children twice I feel like it's 24. I look up to her so much they're teaching us how to more efficiently make fires cook more substantive food and better bargain in town living so close to the edge these small changes are having huge impacts on our lives probably the most important one is lard we bought some straight and lard today in town to try to add to our fat content if you could feel this texture right now it is one of the foulest things ever [Music] a slard right here has what was it 208 grams of fat and 1 800 calories which is the equivalent more than more than the rice or beans that we were eating and we started mashing our beans and refrying our beans in lard so good in the stomach in our third week they invited us over to their home for a small snack but when we arrived they were preparing the traditional meal of pulique served only twice a year for special occasions [Music] [Music] [Music] the fully our desire to repay Anthony and Rosa not only for the expense of the incredible food but also their generosity is overwhelming [Music] they have so little yet they're willing to give so much [Music] we all agree that somehow we will save the money to cook them a pool league dinner before we go really like 60. it's only three days you can just decrease our the amount we like we can get like you know a pound and a half I mean I don't think we even really need to dip into our savings that much yeah at all that'd be awesome if we can just if we just want to like not eat very much [Music] [Music] struggles with how we need to pay Anthony's Family back and also pay off our loan which is doing three days so [Music] we drew really low numbers for four days I pulled four numbers in a row and two of them were zeros and two of them were ones so amongst the four of us we had 12 cents a person to live on per day and you know we woke up and it was Market day and we literally have no money for food so this is a big poll we need two or higher you get a one No Bananas we get a zero you gotta go talk to Anthony and take out alone from him [Applause] it's a knife [Music] dude yes oh my God bananas for everyone we got lucky and pulled a nine but what if you're out of food and you don't know the next time money will be coming in how do you choose between feeding your child or keeping them in school [Music] please [Music] yourself [Music] this place is [Music] no no see [Music] [Music] continual Studios the same foreign [Music] we had started to do these really amazing interviews around the fourth week and Chris and I spoke Spanish so we were understanding everything that was going on and you know we had started to be affected by these stories but Ryan and Sean didn't speak Spanish and they were talking and they're like when you finally deal with you know this learning how to survive it's not so bad no problem this is not that hard you know we're halfway through I could do this for another you know two years I just got really angry and upset because because clearly the people were around you know they had learned to survive but it wasn't okay and it wasn't easy for them and they had to like work so hard every single day and they couldn't follow their dreams because they couldn't go to school because it'll provide for their family and Chris and I were so involved with this research that we weren't sharing what was going on what were some of the questions in general I mean I guess I don't really even know what you guys were asking we started getting into where all their income was coming from and you know like what skills are they used to work and like what they really deal with to find money in emergencies and you know there's their lives are so much more complicated than our initial interviews showed even something as simple as what you cook with is important a broken stove or cooking over an open fire can have dramatic effects on the health of a family especially on the kids [Music] foreign it's incredibly hard to save up a large amount of money for a cooking stove but Anthony did it with 12 of his friends by using an Innovative idea called the savings Club together they each decided to save 12 every month and at the end of each month the total sum of 144 dollars would be randomly distributed to one of the members this process then repeats itself until each person has benefited from a large sum of money at a single time and that that large sum of money was much more useful to them because they could take that money and spend it on a big ticket item like a stove or maybe pay for a wedding and you know that's that's really innovative and we started talking about how close this community was and we hang out with Chino every day and his mom his past year got really sick and they don't even have enough money to you know to get a car to go to the hospital in town and Anthony covered the entire thing is foreign [Music] them to go to the hospital he paid for the doctor's visits and the medicine and the medicine [Music] Anthony can afford the loan because he's the only one in the village who has a formal job unlike everyone else he can count on getting a regular paycheck a um and while Anthony did help these other people like that's still a huge strain on their own finances yeah that's where like if there was you know institution willing to take on that risk and and lend to someone like Chino's parents you know then they don't have to put a strain on on Antonio and you know not everyone has that Community around them or the people they can go to in times of need you know and that was something that um and that's you know yeah yeah good I am good how are you how are you good see you um yeah not everyone has you know has such a tight-knit community around them so if you have an emergency like Chino's parents here like what are you gonna do if you don't you know you don't have that person right next to you or you don't have the emergency funds or that that Community to rely on it's true all right the devil's pretty sick at the rabbit he's got a little bit of an upstep upset time this is just at one point I had both Giardia and E coli at the same time and uh you know that's no good especially when you only have two pairs of boxers and you're sleeping you know on the same match sharing a blanket with uh with someone next to you I think I think Chris is really sick dude I think it uh I have that like sulfuric burp thing happening again or like I can't even push on my stomach I can't sleep another night like this I'm gonna go get Chris tested for some bacterial infections and see if he has a parasite or hopefully it's just a stomach thing today in town we found out that Chris has some parasites in his stomach he's called Giardia Giardia I believe and it's like living in my small intestine in here and it uh causes like excessive bloating and stomach pressure the medicine is 200 guitars so even if people could afford to get tested it's incredibly expensive to actually get the medicine there's no way we could pay that cost I have to use medicine that we brought in case of emergency [Music] if we can't budget for a simple sickness what will we do in the case of a more serious problem two months before we arrived hurricane Agatha smashed through Guatemala disaster workers in Guatemala say at least a dozen people are dead the tropical storm Agatha slammed into its Pacific Coast Saturday [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] if you've lost everything how do you get the money to get back on your feet how do you begin building a lump sum to start a business we wanted to see if getting a loan from a Traditional Bank was even an option for our neighbors okay so if you're gonna have to put the camera down initially I think unless you want to be just like through the door and then put it down yeah [Music] okay we can't take photos inside no um are you uh going for the uh discreet film yeah yeah sweet uh uh [Music] [Music] Perfecto okay so I tried to see if we could get a uh a 3 000 quetzali loan and the problem is we need all of these other items we need a receipt that of our electricity bills we need an nit number which she said costs a bunch of money to get we need a copy of the amount of money we're making which I don't think we can get if we have a form informal job bills from the last three months to people who will sign for us and then we need to be able to sign our name too there's no chance we could get a loan from from that bank uh there's just no way I think we should I mean I really want to know we visited Rosa again to see if there are any other options provides reliable savings accounts and Loans designed to empower the poorest of the poor to improve their lives [Music] with a loan of just two hundred dollars Rosa was able to start her own weaving business it was so huge to see the potential for what even the simple access to credit can do in the lives of of our neighbors of our close friends I see oh [Music] um [Music] [Music] thank you thank you [Music] when a Grameen borrower receives a loan they also commit to opening a long-term savings account a safe and a convenient way to build up a large sum of money we found that Beyond using a loan or savings account to start a business our neighbors were using them to absorb shocks and make investments around the house these financial services such as microfinance like they go far beyond just providing extra Capital they really shape the family and they have these side effects of empowering women [Music] finally we have Robin us we have grown our ravenos and now we have tons and tons of an explosion of Romanus instead of selling our radishes we're giving them out as gifts to thank the people with interview [Music] these radishes represent a new source of income for us one that can move us closer to two dollars a day while that still doesn't seem like much it would double our livelihood and it's kind of those those small incremental changes that actually have such a profound effect on people that are living at that level and you know I feel like that will have such an impact on the next generation of that family that it's really there that we'll see progress out of poverty [Music] After All This research we had saved up the whole time for this pool week dinner it was just this amazing moment and that was the last day that we were there we wanted to convey just like how appreciative we were of what they had done for us not only from you know what they had shared with us but being our friends and you know building a relationship with us and in many ways teaching us and accepting us as as a friend instead of just you know a foreigner ah what can I do as an individual that's the hardest part about it and what we were talking about last night is there is no one answer you know that we've poured three you know two and a half trillion dollars in International Development trying to end poverty and a lot of times it's just made things worse like that's what we're trying to prove so much right here is the power of partial solutions that like you know there's more people who are not in potlou not living in poverty than there are who and are living in poverty like each individual can affect and help a single other individual we can change the world hello how are you good thank you how are you I'm good thank you what is your name my name is my name is Chris it's nice to meet you it's nice to meet you [Music] over [Music] good morning good morning how are you how are you good see you thanks what is is your your name is [Music] I now have a much deeper respect for someone living at that level I personally I lost 20 pounds in just two months and I got to go home and rehabilitate but what if that's someone's life where they live like that day in and day out with no nutrition and and not not an adequate amount of food it was something that we could never have you know imagined is something I had to live [Music] thank you [Music] completely swing [Music] is I don't know [Music] systems [Music] 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