The Banking Experience

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As I understand it, during the winter holiday season, the government of Guatemala decided that there was alot of worn out money in circulation, so they took it out of circulation and destroyed it. Imagine the scene in the government office when it was realized that there was no new money to replace the worn out money and it became painfully obvious in the market place that this was indeed going to be a problem. Yes, there was a run on the banks, long lines at the banks, caps on how much could be withdrawn on any one day, as the government hurried to print more money in the way governments hurry to do anything. I think two banks closed, one that had been corrupt in some way or did not keep good records so that the bank that absorbed it could not honor people's accounts. One man who had his life savings in one such bank- after having a different bank of his close a year ago as well- went to his vacation home and called home to say goodbye before committing suicide. ouch.

I knew some of this situation before embarking on my adventure here. I knew it might be difficult to use the atms. I knew the lines at the bank might be long and overwhelming. In this context, here is the story of my first adventure in banking here in Xela.

I went to the parque central the first Friday I was here and tried to use an atm. They were all closed so i asked a guard in oen of the banks and he told me that all the atms in the city were closed today and to try back next week. so i asked if i could withdraw money on my credit card and he said no, so i walked home and got some dollars and asked the son, jorge, who is in highschool, if he knew what time the banks closed and he said six, so i walked back and met John on the way and he said he´d exchange money for me out of the quetzals he´d already gotten if i had problems, but i said i´d give it a shot.

so i went back to the same bank and asked the same guard if i could change my pain here, yes i meant dollars but mispronounced it and he asked if i had a headache and laughed at his little joke. then he went over and asked a man in a cubicle whether i could exchange $40, cause he´d asked me how much and after heeing and hawing i finally told him, the man in the cubicle said yes and pointed to a line i should wait in. so i waited.

there was a little girl in front of me and she kept looking at me and i´d look at her and smile and look away and she´d try not to look at me again, but she would and i tried not to look at her, but i would and i´´d smile- i´d already said buenas tardes.

anyway, i got up to the counter and told the lady i needed to exchange dollars and she said i couldn´t and i told her the man in the cubicle had said i could and she said no and she told me i needed to go to a different bank.

frustrated, i got up to leave, but i wanted to tell the guard that i did have a headache now, indicating that i´d finally gotten his little joke, but when i was telling him i said they said i couldn´t exchange my dollars and he got mad and went over and yelled at the lady, not yelled, but talked sternly to her, and i´m standing behind him saying no problema, no problema. they relunctantly told me to sit and wait again, for someone to help me, so i did.

finally someone came to help me and she wanted to see my passport and i didn´t have it with me cause i was just exchanging dollars, but i had a copy, but it was in my moneybelt, so i had to untuck my shirt and get it out of my money belt and they were scandalized, but they were the ones that said they needed it so much. so they started filling in info in the computer, and then there were three ladies helping me and i was telling them i was sorry , i didn´t know it would be a problem, i didn´t know why he said i could when i couldn´t, etc. and they kept trying to pretend like it wasn´t a problem. then they handed me a piece of paper and my dollars back and my passport copy and told me to stand in line for ventana una, so i went and stood in this really long line.

but as i was standing there, i noticed there was a short line in front of ventana una, and i was wondering how i would be sure to get ventana una standing in a line where there were several windows, so i asked the lady in front of me whether this was the line for window one and she said no and pointed to the short line. i thanked her and moved. then while i was standing in line, a little old man in front of me started talking to me very fast and i said no entiendo, mas despacio por favor and he didn´t really slow down, that i could tell, but i think he asked where i was from and i told him and how long i´d be here and i told him and what i did for a living and i told him and i think he said he was a professor of international studies at one of the universities, but maybe he was talking about his son or something. he welcomed me to Xela, i told him i liked Xela. then i think he said it was cold and i said it was hot during the day but cold at night, and then it was his turn at the window. when he finished he turned back to me and said goodbye and some other stuff. i didn´t catch all he said. i did say que a couple of times, but didn´t have the nerve to stop him every time i didn´t understand, so i smiled and nodded alot. durn.

then it was my turn at the window and i got my money and put it in my bra and went back to the door and told the guard that i no longer had a headache and thanked him very much. at least that´s what i think i said. then i left the bank and started walking home and found myself really happy and smiling and saying buenas tardes to everyone and they said it back to me and i smiled more and found a spring in my step.


Postscript: I went to the bank again on Tuesday of my second week. Actually, I went to the atm first and it worked just fine, although a bit slowly. I had to go to the bank anyway, though, to exchange some money for Alida. I went to the bank she had pointed out that had worked well for her- a different bank than I'd gone to before- there are at least three surrounding parque central. There was hardly any line and I was quickly and easily able to exchange my dolares. Apparently my first experience was just a matter of poor choice of bank, but I'm glad I had that experience. It was much more interesting, but i still won't be going back to that bank.

Post Postscript: So I went to the same atm today that worked last Tuesday and it wouldn't take my card, although it was working for other people. Yep, same card I used last week. I tried another atm across the street and it also said it could not process my transaction. I went to the bank that had worked so well last Tuesday and apparently they'll only change travelers checks until 5 although they're open till 6pm. I guess I'll try again tomorrow.

Post Post Postscript* I tried to use one of the ATMs I had used and had worked for me before. I put my card in, I entered my pin, and . . . the screen changed, but then went blank, then started running some numbers in the upper left corner. It had shut down and was restarting. When the screen came back, the machine didn´t remember that it had my card. The opening screen says the machine should not retain your card for any reason and if it does you should call this number immediately from your own phone, you should not accept help or borrow someone else´s phone. This elicited a bitter laugh of irony as I was trying to get money to go rent a phone and thus did not have a phone to use. After pushing many buttons to ensure the machine wouldn´t let anyone use my card and pin number, and not having anything else to do, I started walking home to use the family´s phone, then I thought about going to the school or to one of the internet cafes which were closer, then I finally remembered that there was a tourist office right around the corner and went there.
I I explained to the nice lady what had happened and that I needed to use her phone, but that my spanish was not sufficient to handle this, if she could please speak with the bank for me, which she did. They had to call her back, so I sat and waited for over an hour. When they called back it was to say that I needed to be at the ATM the next morning between 9am and 9'30 to retrieve my card. This entailed me cancelling my plans to attend a trip to a Finka owned by former revolutionaries. So I went to the school to explain.
The next morning when I showed up at the ATM, there was a man holding a very large gun and a bulletproof vest guarding the machines who wagged his finger and shook his head at me as I approached. Undetered, I ventured forth and explained that the machine had eaten my card the day before, that I had called the bank and they had told me to meet a man here at this time today to get my card back. At this moment another man came out of the ATM booth with official looking attire and a clip board, and my card. The man with the gun let me pass and the other man asked to see my passport and I showed him a copy and he gave me my card. Everything seems legit. My family was concerned, but nothing strange has shown up on my statements yet. We´ll see. The most annoying thing about it was having to rearrange my plans. I don´t think I´ll be using anymore ATMS that don´t use the slide mechanism.

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