Hahahaha. Aren't you impressed with my photography-from-a-moving-bus skills? I have no idea what I was even intending to photograph, but it wasn't this. I promise I will get better at it!
I thought I would share a bit about the Congolese money situation. American bills are very common, in larger denominations than I am used to carrying... we got our 'settling in allowance' in hundreds and I am still working through that money. The american bills have to be in pristine condition, or people at the store can refuse to take them. It can be quite frustrating! For change, though, there are no coins, and people use the Congolese franc. (Which has no such regulations about it's condition. Many are very dirty and old.)
It is very common to pay with american bills and receive your change in francs because one dollar bills seem to be much less common than other denominations. 1,000 Congolese francs is about one dollar, 500 francs is about 50 cents, etc. Prices for most things in most stores are in francs, and at the cash register most stores have very nice checkout computers that show what you owe in both francs and dollars.
There are also 1,000 and 10,000 franc bills, but they seem, at least to me, less common than the ones you see here. As you can well imagine, trying to buy all your necessities with bills that are worth fifty cents each would be kind of challenging (while there are ATMs and credit card readers, it doesn't seem as common to pay with your card. Cash is very very very common.) I have definitely seen men at the grocery store with GIANT neatly folded stacks of 500 franc bills. They literally have to count out 40 bills to pay for something that costs about 20 dollars. You can imagine that it takes a while for the man, and then the cashier to count them all!
(I am trying to show you the pictures on both sides of the bills, hence the abundance of pictures.) As you might wonder, this leads to some very interesting cash register drawers at the store. Most places I have seen don't seem very strict about having the "till" drawer pop open when the sale is made... the drawer is just open all the time, providing an interesting look in for someone as nosy as myself.
(I promise, the last boring picture of money...) The cashiers that I have seen have large drawers where they can keep stacks of all the Congolese francs and the american money that they get, but there aren't the little clips that hold the money down usually, the ones I remember are just large drawers with no coins, only lots and lots of bills. As you can see above, they have had a recent reprint of the 200 franc bill, so there are new ones of that denomination, and you can see an old one behind it. Both are acceptable, no one will make any comment about either one.
So that is the money situation. I thought I would sit down and write this in 2.2 seconds, but it turned out there was more to say. I should have known it would be longer considering I was writing it. I am off for my stressful Friday of three afternoon prep periods and no recess duty. I LOVE Friday! I hope you all have a restful and enjoyable weekend.
I wanted to make one last comment.. a PS if you will... The title of my blog does in no way imply that I think I am clever or that my blog is clever. "Something clever" refers to that moment (ie you move to a foreign country) and everyone expects you to say something clever and insightful about all your new and wonderful experiences. But instead of saying something that's actually clever... because I am not so much clever as just long winded... I just made the title of my blog the words "something clever." Because I don't claim to know everything (or even very much) about my new country of residence or have any insights... I am just learning as I go, and sharing as I go. And that is all (even though it doesn't make a lot of sense.)
Aaah Ellen, I love you - only you would notice the clip-less nature of till drawers! :D
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