Government Work: Not What It’s Cracked Up to Be
Posted on July 15, 2010 - Filed Under Culture Clash, Guatemala, Simple Life | 5 Comments
Irving used to work for the Ministry of Education here in Guatemala. They did wonderful things like not paying their teachers for up to 8 months at a time and making a point of putting teachers in the furthest town possible from where they lived. Fun times.
After Dante was born, Irving really hated being a teacher. He said if he had to be around kids all day, he’d much rather be around his own! Dorian screamed and wailed every time his papa headed to work, begging him not to go.
And then one day, Dorian mistakenly thought his papa told him he could go with him. He pulled on his little sandals, grabbed his backpack and put his cars in it and was waiting by the door when Irving headed out.
The disappointment in his tiny face (he was about 18 months old) when Irving told him he couldn’t go was heartbreaking. This time there was no screaming, just a very very sad little boy who sobbed and begged, “Please, papa, PLEASE!” Irving started to cry too and he told me he didn’t want to do this anymore. And so he didn’t. He quit his teaching job shortly after, relying on the band and my writing to support us.
It was wonderful! Dorian and Dante had their papa with them all day long, we got to spend all our time with our children and I was able to work longer periods without distraction because he was watching the boys. He even did the housecleaning!
That was three years ago. And last night, Irving was served with papers saying he owes money to the government. Because apparently they overpaid him as a teacher and didn’t realize until they were audited a little bit ago.
We don’t have time to fight this if we’re going to Canada, because Irving is going to have problems (probably) if he applies for a visa while in debt to the government. So that means paying nearly $250 just because someone didn’t do their job right. And, from what I understand, we aren’t the only ones affected. Can you imagine what this will mean to other families who earn considerably less than we do? I don’t understand how they can do this after three whole years, when the money is long gone. But then again, there are a lot of things I don’t understand about Guatemala.
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5 Responses to “Government Work: Not What It’s Cracked Up to Be”
Talk to Me, People!
Oh thats just terrible news, hard on you guys and the others who are affected. But Guatemala isn’t the only place that happens to, it happened to me here in Australia a few years back. I was a single mum of two boys worked part time and received some money from family services (govt dept). FOUR YEARS LATER Family Services contact me to tell me they overpaid me by nearly $2,000 and I had to pay it back. Boy, was I mad! Hope this doesn’t affect your travel plans.
As Leiani said, it happens (with regular monotony) here in Australia… One way you could address it is by offering to pay it back in installments… That is how the Aust govt. accept their own bungles (stuff ups)!!!
What! So where´s Joviel Acevedo now? He should be protesting with all the affected teachers in front of the Ministry of Education right now!
I think that the teachers need to go public with this. Maybe with some press coverage, the government will back down.
No wonder this president offered free education for everyone, if, not only did he not plan to pay the teachers, but on top of this, he wants to take money from them! OUTRAGEOUS!
Wow, that’s insane! I can understand it happening in a third world country, but you’d think somewhere like Australia would get it right.
We can’t do installments, we don’t have time! It has to be paid off before we leave in September, so we’ll have to pay it pretty soon. It isn’t a showstopper, but it really makes me mad . . . we could easily use that money for something else!
that really sucks! I know years ago after I had surgery on my arm I had to apply for food stamps. Bad enough having to apply, but then I started receiving them and something wasn’t right. I called and wrote them telling them I was getting too much… the worker responded by telling me to just “spend them”. Fast forward several months, off food stamps and back to work. I get a nice letter telling me they overpaid me by about $595 in stamps and that I needed to pay them back. So I asked for a hearing…what a joke it was. Basically, you can state your case, but as the judge told me, any government benefit needs to be paid back, whether it was your mistake or theirs… in this case it was theirs, and I figured with the proof I had in hand I could fight it. Not so, they offer you the hearing option, but they always “win.” So I agree with you, it is probably best to pay them back so you can get his paperwork for your trip in September.