Bank Hell

Today I spent 3½ hours in bank hell, but I got what I wanted by golly! I opened my first African bank account. So now I have a place to put my pennies.

I would like to take a moment and let you reflect on your last trip to the DMV or the last time you waited for a really long time and experienced a lot of frustration and may be someone being difficult with you just because they needed to be better than someone else. This is my all to common experience when I go places like the bank here. I don’t even go to pay my bills I have a Togolese go for me to avoid that hassles. Honestly.

While I was at the bank I need to just run through the highlights as I would prefer to forget this day.
The woman was definitely more into talking to the woman next to her, answering the phone, and talking to people passing her cube than speaking to me.
She told me there were several types of accounts but didn’t even explain one type to me. Even when I went back in the conversation and asked specifically.
She told me to fill out the paper and then write it on the back…Yes I had to have a 5 minute discussion with her about how I didn’t understand what “IT” was and please stop saying ‘write it’ and may be say this another way so I could understand. She just referred me to the bank manager. He told me I should have brought a translator with me. I explained I did but she had to leave and the woman wasn’t helping us when my translator was there with me. He felt bad so he sat and translated the form for me and then he had me print “I approve” at the bottom of the form.
They charge you $3 a month to have an account. Later they told me they will charge me another $36 a year and then as I was almost done and walking to make my deposit they told me I had to pay a fee to make a cash deposit! I lost it and only deposited my check. Then they wouldn’t let me out of they bank…literally I was locked inside. The bank manager said he would pay the fee today but I had to deposit my money. I told him it was ok. I deposited the check and I would keep the money.
I almost got hit by a car in the secret back parking lot that they made me walk out, rather than the front door.

Oh and I should mention that the moto driver tried to charge me double for the ride home. Then his friend came over to tell me that I was crazy and 400 cfa was standard. I told him I travel this route almost every day and it’s 200 cfa and he knows it. He was lying to me. I smiled and gave him the funny teacher look and reminded him that yes I was white but not stupid. I laughed, he laughed, the moto guy laughed and then took me home for 200 cfa. But we had to drive by all of his friends and they cheered for him that he had a yovo on the bike and yelled YOVO at me…Oh this is my funny life!