1. Actividades:

Being poor is bad enough. Having to ask friends, who themselves also have so little and have it so hard, for help can be just plain embarrassing. But not the Villa-el-Salvadorian way!

In Villa when a family is low on funds and needs crutches for a son with a broken leg, money for a daughter's education or even just cash for basic necessities (food! and to pay the bills!), they hold what is called an actividad. Rather than beg for money or merely ask people for one-sided help, the family cooks a big meal - usually chicken - and sells the food to their friends and neighbors for a small profit. Later in the evening the family also holds a low-key party at which guests buy the food and drink they consume, again with a small profit for the family. This way the family can invite their friends and loved ones to help them out in their time of need without loosing their dignity, and friends can help out without embarrassing the family. It is a fair exchange of goods and services. When you are told about an actividad, or invited by a family member, you don't think twice. Everyone stops by to buy some food or have a drink with the family.

2. Cobradores:

Villa has 400,000 inhabitants, all poor, all in need of jobs... many work as maids, cashiers and other such jobs in the city, others as street vendors or moto-taxi drivers in Villa. But some have found a creative source of income:

One of the principle modes of transportation in Villa, aside from the moto-taxis, are the combis - mini-buses that shuttle people back and forth along fixed routes from Villa or the outlying districts and to the city. Don't have a job? Get a clipboard, a pen and stopwatch, and take up post along one of the combi routes. Time how long between the combis who pass you and charge the drivers a fee for that information! You get an income and the combi drivers get information that can help them maneuver their route better and to know if there will be many passengers along the way or not. Creative, no? Some drivers have deals with certain of these cobradores (cobrar = to charge money). Only problem is that Villa is now filled with these cobradores, with anywhere form 1 to 5 on every street corner and sometimes between the corners too!