A neon yellow smock calls out, “make your calls here.” Peruvians who run out of credit on their prepaid cell phone plans can find help in the town square. This lady has two simple feature phones she rents out by the minute. Each phone carries two SIM cards, one for each major carrier here. If you make a 30 second call – “Hello dear. Yes dear. Yes dear. Goodbye dear. I love you.” – they charge you the standard rate of 0.50 sols (about $0.15) for 1 minute, and keep the extra 30 seconds as their profit. One hundred calls added up over a day don’t amount to much, but it’s better than nothing.
There are no unemployment benefits in Peru, so unemployed people create simple jobs to get by. Some people live on very thin margins.
