05/11/09

Change is almost impossible to come by here. No matter what you are buying and how small the currency you use, the vendor will still give you a slightly pained expression when they realize you expect change. Whe exchange rate is 26-29 meticais per dollar. Last week i bought something for 19 mets with a 2O met coin. This has station with a computer register and electronic scanner didn't have change and when I made it clear that I didn't also want the imitation starburst for 1 met, the woman had to go outside and ask one of the pump attendants for the 1 met I was owed. Today, at a bar/store, I wanted to buy a yogurt for 25 mets but only had a 1OO met bill (the equivalent of less than $4). The man didn't have change. Erica also bought a 25 met water so it would be easier to come up with change. If still wasn't able to find 5O mets, so if said to wait and he sent a kid to the bank to get change. When the any returned from the bank he had exchanged the 1OO met bill for one hundred 1 met coins. Thus, I was given fifty 1 met coins as change. The man was nice, he gave me a plastic bag to carry them in. Last night we had a tremendous rainstorm, with the metal roofs on our house it is one of the loudest noises I have ever heard, but oddly very peaceful to sleep to. A colleague today told how at 2am last night his host mom called his bell phone from the next room to ask if if was afraid of the storm. Tonight at dinner my grandma, very concerned, asked me the same.