On the way to the bank...

You would think that as a world-traveler, savvy in every way when traversing the continents, I would have cemented in my mind one of the most important truisms ever offered by a commercial: “VISA – it’s everywhere you want to be.” Unfortunately, my reliance on my MasterCard meant that I found myself unable to use my debit card here in Livingstone, Zambia.


When I think about it, I’ve had a number of blog posts over the years relegated to the search for ATM’s, frozen credit cards that always occur when it’s a national holiday back in the States so I have to wait two days to get it cleared, traveling six hours to a town to find there are no banks or ATMs, bringing my credit card instead of my check card (last time here in Zambia), finding ATMs only to learn they are broken/out of cash/for Nationals only/have a personal grudge against Drewallyn Riley for some reason.


Thus I found myself today on a journey of discovery – tracking down the elusive, endangered ATM that accepts something other than Visa. Of which the last one was apparently hunted down by a Texan last week. Fortunately, I am so used to something going wrong with my bank cards that I wasn’t too worried, plus being here for work means I have a driver to take me to banks, rather than catching local public buses with 25 people in 6 seats or walking 10 miles (love it!) – not that it made it that much easier…

We picked up a woman who worked at the organization I’m working with.

We picked up her children from school.

The first bank ATM was being refilled with cash.

The second bank ATM wouldn’t take my card; inside there were so many people (it was lunch hour) that I couldn’t get in the door.

We dropped off the children at their home.

The third ATM didn’t take my card.

We dropped the woman off to run an errand.

Then we drove down to the touristy Zambezi Sun hotel located on the edge of Victoria Falls (see previous posts on Zambezi sun), about 5 miles from downtown Livingstone, as the driver knew that this hotel was so fancy it had its own branch of Barclays bank with clerks who could run my debit card. I went in, they said “no problem, let me have your passport.” And being the responsible, world traveler I am, I had left in my hotel room safe.

Back in the car to my hotel. And on the way, on the side of the road...a large herd of elephants, leaving a tell-tale trail of massive dung across the road. Of course, being the responsible world traveler, I had also left my camera in the safe. Well done Drew!








Went to the hotel, got my passport and camera.

Took pictures of the elephants on the way back to the hotel bank.





Arrived at the bank with proper documents (yeay me!). asked them for $600 USD worth of Kwatcha (Zambian currency). They gave me $600 USD. Tried again – finally made it out of there with a massive wad of kwatcha ($1 = 5,000 kwatcha, with the largest kwatcha bill being 50,000 or $10, making for a very big wad of cash). Let’s just say if I tried to act like a local Zambian woman and stash my cash in my bra, I’d of suddenly jumped to a D-cup.

Took more pics of the elephants and some baboons scampering across the road.




Picked up the woman from her errand.

Dropped the woman back off at the office.

Came back to the training I’m observing in time for everyone to have finished their lunches.

Couldn’t find my wallet, nearly had a heart attack.

It was on the floor of the car.

I win!