Letters

Yes, I was paid to translate the letters, maybe 5 or 10 centavos each, equivalent of 2 or 4 cents in dollars. No one ever suggested volunteering. It was just assumed that this was part of the administrative cost of running the agency. It was not considered any problem to pay some high schoolers 2-4 cents per letter. The sponsors pay a monthly amount to cover all of these costs so it is not a hardship for them. The costs are all figured into the monthly amount and the sponsors get letters from their students every so often, maybe not every month but often enough to develop a relationship between the sponsor and child. All of the costs are part of the fundraising goals of the organization whose goal is not to increase profits but merely to operate the schools and to offer free education and maybe even a free lunch to the children. So this is not really a problem in most respects. It is normal for nonprofit organizations to pay for services. Lots of nonprofit organizations pay for services whether from freelance contractors or employees both full- and part-time. Sure, it would be nice if nonprofit organizations could get volunteers to take over all of the administrative duties of running the organization and dispense with paid staff so that the funds raised could be stretched farther. Nevertheless, that requires lots of wealthy people who have trust funds and other sources of income to cover their living expenses and are willing to spend all of their time doing someone else's grunt work. If you do that, it would have to be for a cause that you really like, not just to help someone I dislike. Anyway, I just don't qualify as independently wealthy, for starters, so that type of volunteering holds no appeal for me. I could pretend for a while but eventually I would have to pay the piper. "Muzzle not the ox that treads out the grain." If even the lowly oxen is given food and shelter, why should I be treated like a slave, bound and gagged and locked in a cage? The "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" cartoon always was a freaky thing to see in the newspaper but not something to try at home. Anyway, lots of high school students can get part-time jobs so this was not a problem most of the time. I have no record of how I spent the money. I never considered whether there was any legal issue involved in getting paid while living in a foreign country as a high school student. It just was not a big deal at the time. There is no law requiring that I give the money back to the school someday but also there is no law preventing that someday whenever I should have oodles of money in the bank. I am not saying that I would not do that but I cannot discuss this when there is no money in the bank. It is hard to think of giving when I am not getting anything. Until then we say: Put up or SHUT UP!