Carrying large sums of money is scary as shit. Every week on Route, I bring with me a bit too much, and as I walk the few hours to each community, get on another bus and hitch another jalón, I am always worried that not only the money will disappear, but so will I. Apparently, in the La Paz region (where there is another AMIGOS project) there have been a crazy increase in kidnappings, might I add specifically on the highways to other countries. I think this would be the appropriate time to note where one of my communities is…on the carretera to El Salvador! Note this is a fantastic community, love it, I really do..but it is also the same community that I grab a bus that is going to the border to get there, and simply get off a bit before. Oh, and did I mention that there was also a bus that blew-up on this same highway (but on the El Salvador side) last week. It killed 12 Hondureños, 1 Canadian, and 2 Estadounidense! Hopefully this won’t be me..but one of the host mom’s Blanca (one of my favorites) called me just to make sure that I had not blown up too, and that I would still be coming that Wednesday because she wanted to make me tamales..)
To come back to the subject matter, exchanging money..I hate doing it, if carrying around all that skrill wasn’t enough, I also have to carry my passport..and let’s face it losing your passport sucks-straight up, not down. Thus, I try to exchange money as little as possible and the story begins:
I was exchanging money at Banco Occidental, and I waited and waited outside the bank inline for so long to find out that they weren’t actually waiting for the bank..that was fun. So I go inside soon after and I go up to a window where this nice man helps me. He asks for my identification, and I squirm in panic..and then I find my passport at the bottom of my bag. He asks for the money, and then he converts it to Lemp. oh the glorious Lemp. full of plastic holes in the twenty bills and god forbid you try to break a hundred L. bill..back to the story, he counted it about eleven times to make sure it was the correct amount. Asked me a few questions, what I was doing here, for how long, where am I leaving..I am sweating a few buckets with each. I don’t know what it is with authority, they scare me shitless. But the Bank people know how to keep it hush hush when dealing with these large sums..I think I should take note of them. All they do is whisper and mumble, moving their fingers so fast that not even my eyes can follow along. One request, speak up? I know you are super skilled and can stay hush hush, but I can barely hear you!
Right, slash these are two of my lovely vols. that I carry money around for..meet Nick and Stefan.
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