Then I went to the gym to work out and on to rehearsal for the hootenanny.
Only the rehearsal was for this afternoon, not 11 am when I got there.
No problem. We started talking and soon we were discussing an unusual relationship to money in Panama.
He was having trouble with his PA board for his sound system. We had talked about where electronics could be repaired. The only tech we knew of was at the Chino electronic shop in David.
Scary!
He took his PA board to them. They ran it for 6 hours and couldn't get it to act up.
The shop owner offered him a cheap PA board as a replacement even though his was working in the shop. He commented that he wanted to try it before buying it.
This is where the difference in money shows up.
They said take the PA board and come back and pay us if you like it.
That happens here a lot.
I got a haircut a few weeks ago. When I went to pay, I didn't have the correct change and they didn't have change either. I told them I would be back to pay.
No problem.
I went back 30 minutes later and paid.
My friend was in a pharmacy to buy drugs. When he went to pay, his credit card was refused. He tried another and it was refused. This happens a lot. Sometimes on store will accept the card and another won't.
That's the way it goes.
He pushed the drugs back across the counter and said he would return. They said take them and pay us later (it was $40). He said he would return in the PM. They said he could return manana.
In the dictionary, manana means tomorrow but in reality it means some time in the future.
A very loose relationship to money!
Or maybe a relationship of trust. Even though this is a thieving culture, there seems to be a high degree of trust around paying what is purchased.
The in's and out's of a culture are interesting!
2 comments:
I Love this blog. This, too, was my experience in India. often, too, I saw vendors making change out of another vendors cash drawer, sometimes at busy moments the proprietors would be letting one customer charge and give change to the other customers... I absolutley Love it. In the US, we ARE our money, and that changes us into taking financial things much more personally.
That is interesting. Apparently the less money a culture has, the freer they are around it.
Another thing... They are fiscally responsible here. The will start a project--maybe repairing pot holes--and continue until the money runs out. Then that's it. They stop. They don't raid the coffers of some other money fund to complete the project.
I had to choke down some laughter with this. They spend the money left over AFTER the bureaucrats have stolen what they want!
Somehow it all works!
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