Working too hard

My taxi driver, a collectivo taxi, from Caranavi to Yacumo, talked to me quite a bit, as I was in the front seat. He was Bolivian and he told me about his 6 months of working, doing roofing, in Italy.

I asked him why he returned (a western assumption perhaps that life may be better in Italy). He said he didn´t like it how you had to work so many hours in Italy, in Bolivia you just work a few hours, that´s all. What? I thought. Everybody only makes just enough money to get by here, in the developed work you work to earn enough to buy things you don´t need and to travel. But then I understood, in the western world there is an expectation to work many hours in the week, in Bolivia you work what is needed and leave some for somebody else.

hmmm, still I think I´d be bored. They really, mostly, do nothing in their spare time. Well, that´s how it seems to me.