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wayfaringwordhackThis post brought to you thanks to mallorys_camera, who has told me more than once that my ordinary might hold interest for those not living in this country. Herewith a little anecdote of everyday Lebanese life.
What is a person to do when she needs to buy groceries but has neither US dollars or Lebanese lira, only euro? If you answered "pay with her credit card," you would be wrong. After the series of crises Lebanon has undergone and most notably the collapse of Lebanese banking, no one in their right mind would pay with a credit card* here for fear of the official exchange rate and banking fees.
The first thing she would do would be to drive to one of the many, many currency exchange bureaus who operate with the black market rate.** However, when this outing happens at 3:00p.m. on 31 December, our intrepid shopper finds the bureau closed. What to do, what to do?
She calls a freelance money exchange operator (broker?), someone who deploys his couriers on scooters throughout the city! This particular individual speaks impeccable English (buy hey, many Lebanese do) and works all the time with the staff at the French embassy.
OK, the "she" business is getting old....
So I send the broker a WhatsApp message*** detailing that I need 300euro in USD and 100 euro in Lebanese pounds. Pronto. At the supermarket in a neighborhood near me.
Deal!" he promptly responds.
"When will he be here?"
"30 minutes tops. Promise."
"OK, I'm going to start my shopping. Have him text me when he arrives. I'm wearing sweats, glasses, and my hair is in a braid." (Yes, I am glamorous; glad you noticed.)
"Deal."
Thirty minutes later, I finish my shopping and position my cart by the checkout stands. Just then my phone dings.
"He's outside by Starbucks."
I go out and start looking around. I feel a bit like someone about to make some kind of illicit deal in public. I almost wave to one man I think might be the courier, but it's not him. No one is by Starbucks that isn't a customer...
And then, there he is; short smiling man with a bulging bandoleer bag, who makes a beeline for me.
He hands me a massive wad of 100,000 notes-- millions of lira--which I am not going to stand there and count, so I shove it in my purse. I give him 100 euro. I then give him 300, and we count it together. I feel like the dollar amount he gives me is pretty high for the rate I am used to, but I haven't checked it in a while so say nothing. After a "thank you" and cheerful goodbye, I head back inside to pay for my groceries.
A couple of hours later, I see I have a missed call from the broker. I call him back, and he asks me how much money I gave the courier. 300 for the dollars and 100 for the pounds, I say.
"Oh, you asked for the equivalent of 330 euro."
Oy! Indeed I had. Typo. Oh, how embarrassing. But the courier hadn't said anything!
The broker, so kind and understanding, "Don't worry! These things happen!" ****
We agree his courier will swing by the embassy and pick up the missing 30 euro from J at work.
Lebanon is a very service-oriented country. :P
_____________________________
* Online banking payment options like Revolut are starting to become a thing, and J has an account he now uses for doing the groceries. I, as a US citizen, without US residency or US bank account couldn't set one up through my French bank without lots of hoops and paperwork.
** Snippet courtesy of Wikipedia entry on Lebanese pound: From December 1997 through January 2023, the exchange rate was fixed at LL 1,507.50 per US dollar.[4] However, since the 2020 economic crisis in Lebanon, exchange at this rate was generally unavailable, and an informal currency market developed with much higher exchange rates.[5] On 1 February 2023, the Central Bank reset the currency peg at LL 15,000 per US dollar.[6] By mid-March 2023, the "parallel market" rate had fallen to LL 100,000 per dollar. (Today's rate is 89,700 LL to 1 USD) The term "parallel market" sounds so nice, doesn't it?
***Hardly anyone (businesses included) uses the regular phone lines because they are way too expensive. WhatsApp is where it's at.
****Actually, the first time I used his services, HE misread the amount I wanted and brought less dollars. :P
mallorys_camera, who has told me more than once that my ordinary might hold interest for those not living in this country. Herewith a little anecdote of everyday Lebanese life.What is a person to do when she needs to buy groceries but has neither US dollars or Lebanese lira, only euro? If you answered "pay with her credit card," you would be wrong. After the series of crises Lebanon has undergone and most notably the collapse of Lebanese banking, no one in their right mind would pay with a credit card* here for fear of the official exchange rate and banking fees.
The first thing she would do would be to drive to one of the many, many currency exchange bureaus who operate with the black market rate.** However, when this outing happens at 3:00p.m. on 31 December, our intrepid shopper finds the bureau closed. What to do, what to do?
She calls a freelance money exchange operator (broker?), someone who deploys his couriers on scooters throughout the city! This particular individual speaks impeccable English (buy hey, many Lebanese do) and works all the time with the staff at the French embassy.
OK, the "she" business is getting old....
So I send the broker a WhatsApp message*** detailing that I need 300euro in USD and 100 euro in Lebanese pounds. Pronto. At the supermarket in a neighborhood near me.
Deal!" he promptly responds.
"When will he be here?"
"30 minutes tops. Promise."
"OK, I'm going to start my shopping. Have him text me when he arrives. I'm wearing sweats, glasses, and my hair is in a braid." (Yes, I am glamorous; glad you noticed.)
"Deal."
Thirty minutes later, I finish my shopping and position my cart by the checkout stands. Just then my phone dings.
"He's outside by Starbucks."
I go out and start looking around. I feel a bit like someone about to make some kind of illicit deal in public. I almost wave to one man I think might be the courier, but it's not him. No one is by Starbucks that isn't a customer...
And then, there he is; short smiling man with a bulging bandoleer bag, who makes a beeline for me.
He hands me a massive wad of 100,000 notes-- millions of lira--which I am not going to stand there and count, so I shove it in my purse. I give him 100 euro. I then give him 300, and we count it together. I feel like the dollar amount he gives me is pretty high for the rate I am used to, but I haven't checked it in a while so say nothing. After a "thank you" and cheerful goodbye, I head back inside to pay for my groceries.
A couple of hours later, I see I have a missed call from the broker. I call him back, and he asks me how much money I gave the courier. 300 for the dollars and 100 for the pounds, I say.
"Oh, you asked for the equivalent of 330 euro."
Oy! Indeed I had. Typo. Oh, how embarrassing. But the courier hadn't said anything!
The broker, so kind and understanding, "Don't worry! These things happen!" ****
We agree his courier will swing by the embassy and pick up the missing 30 euro from J at work.
Lebanon is a very service-oriented country. :P
_____________________________
* Online banking payment options like Revolut are starting to become a thing, and J has an account he now uses for doing the groceries. I, as a US citizen, without US residency or US bank account couldn't set one up through my French bank without lots of hoops and paperwork.
** Snippet courtesy of Wikipedia entry on Lebanese pound: From December 1997 through January 2023, the exchange rate was fixed at LL 1,507.50 per US dollar.[4] However, since the 2020 economic crisis in Lebanon, exchange at this rate was generally unavailable, and an informal currency market developed with much higher exchange rates.[5] On 1 February 2023, the Central Bank reset the currency peg at LL 15,000 per US dollar.[6] By mid-March 2023, the "parallel market" rate had fallen to LL 100,000 per dollar. (Today's rate is 89,700 LL to 1 USD) The term "parallel market" sounds so nice, doesn't it?
***Hardly anyone (businesses included) uses the regular phone lines because they are way too expensive. WhatsApp is where it's at.
****Actually, the first time I used his services, HE misread the amount I wanted and brought less dollars. :P
no subject
Date: 12 Jan 2024 08:44 pm (UTC)One of my former tutees is a refugee from El Salvador. Recently her brother came to the United States, paying traffickers, "coyotes," to take him. It cost thousands of dollars and of course it's all illegal. And open to plenty of exploitation. But these coyotes operate like an ordinary business, you can call them, they give updates, etc. I was kind of mindblown.
Glad
no subject
Date: 12 Jan 2024 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12 Jan 2024 10:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 13 Jan 2024 11:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 13 Jan 2024 12:19 pm (UTC)When I went to Cyprus, I was blown away by how easy it was to pay with the credit card. (Except on the bus; they wanted cash or a pass that had been bought at the station, and the annoyance that entailed is a whole other story. >:})
no subject
Date: 13 Jan 2024 12:19 pm (UTC)le systèm D.
Date: 13 Jan 2024 02:25 pm (UTC)PS In addition to the Tikuna lessons I'm getting from my tutor, I've got some archived online classes from 2021 that I'm listening to. The instructor is French, but he speaks in both French and Spanish, translating everything both ways, because the class was mixed Spanish speakers and French speakers. I did have years of French in high school but it's been a while, so the Spanish is better for me. But then the class I listened to yesterday, none of the Spanish speakers were in attendance, so the guy did the whole thing in French! So that was a great way to refresh my listening comprehension! All of which is to say, I read "le systèm D" mentally in the voice of that professor.
Re: le systèm D.
Date: 13 Jan 2024 04:50 pm (UTC)I am always in awe of people who speak multiple languages, especially those who can teach in various ones.