Do you really want to hear about my banking woes?

This is such a downer, and I'm really not sure it's interesting enough to type out. So, that's your warning. Read this only if you like to know all about the little things which eat up the hours of my week.

I wrote on Tuesday about how excited I was to be signing up for internet access to my bank account. On Wednesday, I went to the bank, to check and see if funds had been deposited (the very thing I hope to be able to do online, in the future).

I was at the bank for three hours. During that time, I asked about the form for online banking, and was told that the bank didn't have any copies of that form, but would have them the next day. I also was told that the funds had not yet arrived in the account. I withdrew all but about $10 from our account, so we would have a bit of cash at the house.

When I got home, Russell informed me that he needed to renew the registrations on both our vehicles, immediately. Somehow this had slipped through the cracks, and was already overdue (there isn't any notice which comes in the mail to remind you when this is due). Paying for these two registrations used up all of the cash I brought home from the bank, plus the little bit of cash we still had in the house from before. Sigh.

So, Thursday (which, of course, isn't a holiday in Honduras) I returned to the bank. My stay was only two hours on Thursday. During this time, I was able to:

1. discover that the funds had arrived in our account
2. be informed that the funds would not be available for withdrawal until Tuesday
3. find out that the employee who told me the forms would be available was out of the office, and no one else knew anything about them.
4. get a cash advance on my credit card, so we would have some cash for immediate needs

Sooooo, that means at least one more bank visit early next week. Actually there will be an additional bank visit. Since we won't have the cash we need to get the Christmas shipment through customs before Russell leaves to take care of that in Puerto Cortes, I will have to remove funds from our bank on Tuesday, and then deposit them in an account in another bank, so that our associate can withdraw the funds from his bank account in Puerto Cortes, and use them to pay for the shipment.


That's my whine for today. I wouldn't mind the trips to the bank so much, if it didn't involve physically standing for several hours. I take a book, and have a good bit of time for reading, or I practice my Spanish with the people in line with me. But after standing for two, or three, or occasionally more hours, I am pretty much exhausted!