12th March, 2015. Thursday. Old money!

Another visit to the bank this morning, this time for as they say ‘Big money’  I took a shopping bag and Kebba into the bank with me to carry the hoard.  We had to ask if the bank had the amount we needed as we are paying for the solar bore hole this morning.  After some discussion it was agreed they had the money and so we had to wait whilst they disappeared into a back room to fetch it.  The largest note here is 100 dalasis, although there is a rumour that there will soon be a 200 dalasis note.  A large pile of money was brought out and packed into the shopping bag.  Kebba and I left and returned to the truck and Steve.  We drove onto Waterpoint where Kebba and I once more left Steve with the truck whilst we went in to pay.  Some of the money was in plastic bags endorsed by the bank and so it was agreed that only the rest of the money would be counted.  Some was in 100 notes, some in 50s and 7500 in 25s.  We were taken to a cashier who enlisted the help of two others and watched as everything was counted; this took the best part of an hour, much grumbling as the 25 notes were dirty, torn and some held together by the thinnest piece imaginable.  A new 20 dalasis note is coming out soon and so the 25s are not being renewed.  At last it was all agreed and a receipt issued.  We returned to the truck and went to the timber yard for the second lot of timber required for the roof.  Red timber is very heavy and we are only taking 12 lengths at a time in order not to damage the suspension on the truck. I returned home and Kebba and Steve went with the timber to Nemasu.  We are waiting for a plumber to come and do some work at the house, so I returned home to relieve our temporary watchman and waited for the plumber.   Needless to say he did not arrive and I waited in vain.  Steve came home in the middle of the afternoon having also visited Naata for a meeting with Mr Jallow.  We decided to eat at home instead of out today and then watched a film in the evening.

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