Baksheesh

Sometime ago I read the story of a young guy, in the early 1950's, who boarded a ship in New York bound for India. He had less than $3.00 in his pockets. His journey took him to Alexandria, Egypt where he hopped another boat to Beirut. From there he headed overland, through Lebanon, Syria, Persia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan before finally coming to rest near Delhi, India. I had the privilege of spending a week with his daughter and family some time ago. He is long gone now, but his adventures live on in my heart.

Locked Out in Istanbul
While there is no overland journey to capture your imaginations this day...I can tell you the riveting and ironical story of a young family living on the Far Side of the World who is broke and out of cash...Us. Well, we are not really "broke"...we have money...we just can't get to it. Here we go:
About a month ago we were notified that one of our stateside banking establishments was issuing new Visa debit cards. That card is our only link to cash while we are living abroad. In fact, this little piece of plastic is so important that we opened two bank accounts at two different banks, so that we could have two cards, and therefore, two ways to access funds in case of snafus or snags.
Since I am an optimistic pessimist (one who smiles while planning)...I sensed trouble ahead. I withdrew several thousand Lira from our account, and with the help of local friends, stashed it close at hand. There is an old Islamic proverb that applies here: "Trust Allah, but tie up your camel". So, I began to tie up the loose ends.
Even if there was a delay in the issuance of the new cards, I had enough to see us through the week of the Visa card transition and then an extra two weeks. With all of the repairs we are making on our new apartment I knew we would need the cash for labor and parts.
It is now going on week "4" with no new ATM cards in sight, the old cards were punctually deactivated by Visa, before the new ones were mailed out, and, word is that our new cards are still not in residence in our local stateside bank. So, now we have a problem…money…but no way to get to it.
So...here is the beneficial side of advance planning: Our second banking establishment now became very significant in our plans. We have a portion of our income (my pension from California) routed to that establishment each month to further eliminate any financial failings.
With my last 50 Lira in my pocket (about $28.00) I approached the ATM in downtown Istanbul to make my withdrawal from bank Number Two….imagine my surprise to discover that I had no access to those funds either. They simply were not there, Kaput, Kabash, Kaboom.

Is There Money In There?

It seems that the funds had not been deposited because there was some suspicion that I was dead…really. Since we are not easily reached by mail, and since a piece of mail (although they cannot tell me what the mailing was about) might have been returned to the sending organization. They cut off my disbursement because they thought, that possibly, I had passed into the nethers...and someone was taking advantage of my pension funds.
After two hours of international calling (thank you Mr. Bell) some VERY sympathetic people in Springfield, Missouri and San Diego, California…(namely, Stephanie, Gina, Cheri, Shirley, Dave, and Heather) we should have limited access to some cash within the next few days. And access to all of our funds within the next week. For now…we are dead in the water with the remodel, hiding (not really...well, yeah, sorta) from the guy who is making the shower doors and due to hang them this week, counting the change under the cushions, and eating rice and soup.
You know me and my “bottom line”.
Bottom Line? It may not be a Transatlantic journey with a few bucks in our pocket, or an overland adventure through lands fraught with danger….but we are loving it, living here in Istanbul, temporarily tapped, sublimely satisfied, and perpetually perplexed.