The Dollar versus the Peso

One time I had this conversation with my coworker Gracie. She was griping about how she had a disagreement with her elder sister when she called her in our beloved Philippines, my Philippines. She was mad at how her sister was egging her about sending her 100 dollars, anyway, as her Ate said, “it’s just 100 dollars, Grace, ano ba naman yon dyan ?”. Grace was mad that they do not realize how a hundred bucks meant to her considering that she is a single mom and nobody helps support her three-year old daughter and she has a lot of bills to pay too.

As she kept ranting about this, I realized this, people from the Philippines do not actually know what 100 dollars meant to the Filipino earners in the US. I mean I for one thought it doesn’t mean a lot but when I got here, my whole understanding of the value of the dollar changed. It’s like this, if you will compare 1 peso versus 1 dollar, the one peso in the Philippines cannot buy a liquid hand soap, but here in the U.S., with one dollar you can. Our 100 dollar here can go a long way as compared to the Philippines 100 pesos. So folks, hindi sya , ” one hundred dollars lang “. Hindi po siya one hundred dollar lang dahil in truth, madami na po kaming mabibili dito nyan kesa ipadala sa mga nanghihingi na ipang iinom lang dahil birthday nila.

To illustrate further, a 100 dollar can already buy or pay for  :

10 pieces of Levi’s T-shirts at 10 dollars a piece

or 10 boxes of Mangoes at 8.99 a box ( may sukli pa yan )

or 10 or more different kinds of meat packages ( pwera kung tri-tip or mga prime steaks ha ? )

or 2 months of my electric bill at $45.00 a month

or 1 month of Cable bill at $93.00

or 100 items from the Dollar store

and the list is endless…

Before you go asking for dollars from your relatives here, try thinking if the person can manage shelling out 100 bucks, because she may also need it herself. Or better yet, ask yourself first because if you can survive not asking help from others, why bother? Kung latest model lang ng cellphone or pang bili ng bagong damit, baka naman pwedeng ipostpone mo yan. Maybe the person may not send you what you are asking for anyway, and baka mag iba pa tingin nya sayo di ba? Kung emergency okay lang. The most hurting thing is knowing you send somebody your hard-earned money and he just spends it on a drinking spree, or on a shopping spree and they go bragging to people that they have money but it’s money that they did not work for, di nila alam, yung magulang or kapatid nila dito, hirap na hirap kitain yung 100 dollar na pinadala sa kanila. Kakaawa nga ang iba dito eh, lalo na matatanda. Then sometimes the people they send money to would tell them, “one hundred dollars lang naman yon, para yon lang parang ang laki na nang pinadala mo. Kulang pa nga eh. ” Kakahurt yan ha? Mahirap po kitain ang dolyar dito. Kala nyo lang hindi, pero that is the truth and nothing but the truth.

So think before you ask…