No Bank Notes in Gaza
The financial situation here is dire. The national currency used is the Israeli Shekel. However, Israel refuses to bring in money at the moment, and therefore banks have no way of receiving any new bank notes; no new money is coming into Gaza. The problem is that merchants buying items from Egypt and Israel go to the border and pay in cash to collect their goods, so lots of bank notes are leaving. Therefore if you go into the bank and you have $500 in your account, the bank does not physically have that money and therefore cannot give it to you. It can only give very small amounts and very sparingly. This is a disaster for the economy, and I do not understand how this system can maintain itself; bartering only works with certain items, but unfortunately one cannot pay the electricity bill with chicken.
The most interesting part about living in a new place, with a different culture, is noticing the daily habits that are so far from one’s own. There are many small differences of course, and I could go on for pages. But one of the most noticeable to me is the work culture; people smoke in the office, at their desks, during meetings. During meetings they also pick up their phones, and have full conversations. The workday at our office- that is considered long by many people here- is 8am to 3pm. At 2:55 you are told to pack up and the doors are locked at 3 o’clock sharp. After which everyone goes home and has a nice big lunch. The idea of working from home in the evenings and weekends is frowned upon by most.
It is strange that here you can find every type of British chocolate, and yesterday I even found fresh Gouda cheese, but nowhere in the entire Gaza strip is there any real cereal. There is this local brand of ‘corn flakes’ that is a bit creepy, the flakes are a strange yellow color and they taste like cardboard. For some reason this is the only cereal here. There is a shortage of big furniture, because that does not fit through the tunnels from Egypt. A friend of mine is about to get married, and the double bed he has bought cost him $3000. This was the cheapest one he could find.
