El Gringo Pobre

Commerce in Honduras is still based largely on cash transactions. Most people, including us, carry around the cash they need to buy everything: groceries, bus tickets, laundry, meals and the occasional cup of java at Espresso Americana. I have a hard time getting used to that, especially since the exchange rate is close to 20 Lempiras to 1 US dollar. So you end up carrying around these humongo bills if you are going to buy anything of consequence like groceries (easy to go over 500 Lempiras) or bus tickets for a group of MCCers (2,400 Lempiras yesterday).

Two times in recent history we experienced what it's like to not have enough money to buy what we need and having to forgo purchases. The first time was rather humiliating. We were stocking up at Stocks (a version of Sam's Club) and thought we had calculated our cash-vs-purchase ratio, when all of a sudden I realized the tab on the cashier's screen was adding up to more than we had planned to spend, in fact it was demolishing the cash we were supposed to have in reserve to buy sleeping mats in another store. I had to stop the cashier in front of a whole line of waiting shoppers and push the rest of the stuff to the back of the counter telling her we couldn't afford them. I have seen that done before - folks watch the tally and as it approaches a certain Lempira amount, stop the flow of goods past the cashier. But this was our first time and by our reaction was obviously not a planned event. Pobrecito Gringo!

Actually, when we got back to the apartment we realized the problem: we paid 856 Lps for three rolls of toilet paper - that's ~ $14/roll. It had gotten rung up as three cases of TP! We did get our money back. And it's all a very funny story.... now.

Then yesterday we took a fistful of high denomination Lempiras to pay for hotel rooms for MCCers coming south on Monday, buy bus tickets for a group of us, and to buy food at the market and the grocery store. But I also had a shiny new never-been-used debit card from my brand new bank account at BAC/Bamer - ready to swipe and sign and be done with this cash thing. I planned to use it to buy the bus tickets. But - when she swiped and I got my pen ready to sign, I got the "look".... your card was denied Senor. (Turns out check deposits don't clear real fast here). So I pulled out my wallet and prayerfully counted out 2,400 Lps. Whew - we had them.

No big deal - except now we were running a little on the low side of cash and still had bus fare, market, grocery, and bus fare to go. We were not in dire straights by any means, but it was really a strange feeling to be walking around very carefully deciding what we needed to buy, what we could afford, and what we would just have to defer until some other day. It seemed like everyone was watching us.... was it that obvious? And to top it off the butter that was marked 14 Lps rung up as 72 Lps. Uh-oh, here we go again. So we contested - the cashier told us butter NEVER costs only 14 Lps and to verify that she called over someone else who said 14 Lps would never buy butter, but it would buy the margarine, would we like her to go back and get the margarine for us instead. Ahhhhhhh - just dig me a hole please.

We got our margarine and skedaddled home passing two Espresso Americanos and our favorite bakery-coffee shop just up the street from the French bilingual school and I have NEVER craved a cup of coffee more than on that walk.

It was a good lesson. We are not going to go hungry and I can get more cash on Monday and I have a stash of US dollars in the sock drawer to pay the rent. But many folks here have to make those types of decisions every day all the time and it's not deciding whether or not to have a cup of coffee.