Sometimes it's the little things that make the biggest differences. Most of us take our paycheck for granted. The money is automatically deposited to the account, we simply balance our checkbooks, pay the bills, make sure everything is where it should be and continue with our lives. At the coffee plantation, payroll is cash, and payments are made one person at a time. It is always an interesting scene to experience. With employees and merchants, debtors and creditors on hand. Merchants make the trip from town on payroll days in order to settle payments, and sale their merchandise. It creates an interesting market environment.

Payroll is an organized chaos activity. The payroll system in our farm, as well as most farms around involves the manual handout of cash every other Saturday. The person's name is called out, they receive the cash, sign for it, and the next person comes up. The literacy level at the farm is quickly increasing, but there are still those older generations, who can't write their names. They sign with an X and a fingerprint.

Payroll has evolved over the years, as everything has, and everything is now computerized, but what happens with Don Jose who can't sign his name. Paper backup is still required for all the signatures, or non-signatures to avoid any issues. Don Otto, in charge of the coffee plantation operations and payroll, has often been heard to joke, "Someone hand me my blanket, I'll be sleeping here before Jose can sign his name". We can joke, but the process truly is slow and painstaking.

A large proportion of the salary provided to workers at our farm is spending money, since the farm covers most necessities, including: lodging, health, education, food during the work day, free access to some foods (fish in the lakes, citrus, bananas, etc..), electricity, water, trash collection, and sponsored sports. On payroll many workers are known to settle debts, and unfortunately many drink the rest, or the money is otherwise spent the same day. There are also instances of theft within each other, similar to kids bullying each other for their lunch money.

Bank accounts are largely an unknown fact. Savings plan options have been offered, and although few have taken advantage of this, those who have make great examples. Roberto Mendoza, who's in charge of the poultry operation at the farm, is our model example of a saving plan. For a while half is check was directly deposited to his savings account, and he received the other half. He's switched to receiving the full check, but still deposits a portion of it to the account himself. He's saving to buy his own farm, and has accumulated over C$5,000.00 cordobas.

By highlighting and rewarding those that have taken the initiate to save their money, we hope to encourage a saving mentality around others at the farm. Some traditions are hard to break, but we are good at persevering in efforts that others thought were a waste of time. We believe that with time, more will take advantage of a savings plan and improve their own lives.