For those reading this and considering the World Race my first piece of advice is do not get travelers cheqs. I am not sure what I was thinking! I think it may be because I am Canadian and I am pretty positive we all live in the past. I haven't used travelers cheqs since grade 7 when I went to Florida!
Funny pic to give you an idea what I mean
The plan for my personal spending money was to get a total of $200 in cash, $500 in travelers cheqs the rest on my MasterCard. Most of my $200 was gone pretty fast and I knew it was going to be difficult to exchange my cash. I know this well as I went with some of my team mates to the bank so they could exchange money and it took over an hour! I was determined not to cash in my travelers cheqs because I had the feeling it was going to be a difficult. In Guatemala I was doing a lot of random withdrawals from my Mastercard but obviously that's not a good idea with the interest rate and atm fees so I held off unless there was an emergency.
When I came to Roatan, Honduras I cashed in my Guatemala cash for Honduran cash (aka limps). It wasn't much money but should get me by for a bit because where we were staying was pretty much away from civilization and we worked from 6:30 to 4 everyday. By the end of the day we were all in bed by 8pm so there was no going out in the evening. Well, one night we did go out and 3 of us decided to go to Herbys (a Sports grill). I looked at the menu and realized I didn't have enough limps for my meal and desert, $20 limps is 1 dollar U.S so I had around $120 limps. I had to start the credit card started back up again.
The weekend came and we spent Saturday back at Herbys Sports grill for internet and food. I was in big trouble because the desert I had from my last visit was the most amazing brownie I have ever had with ice cream. It was soft, chewy, it was the best! I ordered a meal and 3 brownies that night, yup!! You’re reading that right. I called my sister that night to catch up and go over some money stuff. We got to the financial part and I already knew using the Master Card was a bad idea before she even said anything! I was thinking to myself, "oh boy! wait till she sees the bill!" I am thinking about all my atm withdrawals in Guatemala. Ok this was it; I needed to cash in my travelers cheqs!
That Monday I talked to American Express and asked if there was an easy way to cash them besides going to the bank. They told me what I pretty much didn't want to hear that I would have to go to the bank and cash them.
ok, I didn't want to use American Money to replicate how I felt but I guess this pretty much sums it up oh it was in U.S currency so i guess this is justified.
That following Wednesday we were going to the Orphanage for the day so I thought to ask our host, Orcy how to cash them. I had a friend who spoke Spanish well and that was going to be very helpful. We went to 4 banks and not one of them cashed travelers cheqs. I was praying, “God how is this going to look?” I had pretty much no spending money. I was getting pretty much frustrated. At this point the plan in mind was to call my sister and tell her I am going to Fed ex them home. In the mean time I planned to do a huge withdrawal from the credit card and when my sister would get the cheqs she could cancel them and put them back on the card. Make sense?!
Friday came and we were in town again so after serving with the ministry me and a friend walked into a different part of town to do some errands. We stopped at four different banks including a HSBC and not one of them would cash them. I wasn't frustrated, but my mind was racing on how I was going to cash these. I felt God telling me to be at peace and he will take care of it. But still I pose the question "how is this going look?"
http://jasonbrown.theworldrace.org/?filename=show-me-the-money-part-2
