The first day I woke up in Bucharest it was still blistering hot. I knew the weather was not going to change any time soon so I decided to bear with it and hope for the best. A Romanian friend and colleage stopped by the hostel at 10am. Sabina and I have similiar interests...not only as artists but as volunteers. We talked non-stop for hours and the time passed quite nicely. Daniela came by to join us at 2pm and treated us to a delicious lunch at a restaurant just around the corner from the hostel. So far so good...right?
After lunch we went to go visit a few galleries but on the way I needed to get some cash from the ATM. Any bank would do as I was using my personal Master Card from an international bank...something I had done many times before. (In fact, before I left Ukraine, I used the card to extract money to exchange for Euros...you remember how that story turned out....). So, needless to say it was not as easy as it sounded. My card was rejected from 8 different banks! Being Saturday none of the banks were open so I was unable to make any inquiries regarding this issue. Feeling okay about it, as Daniela had me covered for now, we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon in the city and then made our way back to the hostel where we were greeted like family. Such nice people who work there I must say! They let me use their phone to call my bank in the US, and also allowed me to call the Peace Corps office in the city to let them know what was happening in case I was unable to get access to my money.
The bank assured me my money was available and the card not blocked. They suggested that sometimes Romanian banks reject cards because there is a lot of fraud here, and so I should enter a bank on Monday to have the teller access my money. They said to have the bank call them if there is a problem. I spoke with the Peace Corps county director who was absolutely wonderful. She assured me I would not be left alone without funds and to stay in touch. I had thought to go to the PC office Monday morning but Daniela had made arrangements for us to be tranported, with all the artwork, to Constanta at 7am Monday morning. Huh. I guess I would have to rely on her for a phone connection, as well as money, until things got sorted out.
Things did not get sorted out too quicky. In fact, I was without money for 4 days. Imagine being in a foreign country with no money? It was frustrating, to say the least. The first bank took my credit card and swiped it and the same issues occured, and they refused to call my bank. I couldn't call my bank or my PC office because my phone did not work in Romania. Daniela did not have international calling and I had to use her phone to call the PC country director in Bucharest, who would act as a go-between to alert PC Ukraine of my situation. By now, however, my allowence had come in and luckily I had enough money in my account to cover my trip. PC Ukraine assured me that Pro Credit was also in Romania and I should be able to get my allowence from any teller machine. How about...NOT?
Each time I went to use the Pro Credit bank card it was rejected due to insufficient funds. Now I knew there was enough funds because PC Ukraine called the bank to be sure. So, Daniela called her daughter to find the nearest Pro Credit bank and luckily there was one near the museum where we were setting up our exhibition. This screwed up everyone's timing of course because work was supposed to begin at 9am in the museum but I needed to get to the bank at that time. After all this time without money I was beginning to get a little upset. Daniela kept telling me not to worry she would take care of me but I didn't want to be taken care of! I wanted my own money! Plain and simple.
So, we found our way to the bank (the long way, unfortunately) and sat down with a bank rep who told me my Master Card was no good and she would not call the USA for me. She also told me I had insufficient funds in my PC account. I insisted that I did and she checked her records and said I didn't! So, I got back on Daniela's phone (Did I mention that her phone never stopped ringing?) when it was available to call PC Romania who then called PC Ukraine, who them called Ukraine Pro Credit who insisted that there was plenty of money in there. The women in the bank kept telling me there was nothing she could do...I had insufficient funds. At this point the level of frustration I had been feeling for 4 days came to a head. I simply broke down and cried. I couldn't help it. How can this be happening? How can I have all this money and have no access to it? How can people be so uncaring?
The women became affected by my distress and took me outside to try to use the card. We tried for 1000 RON, which was what I needed to cover expenses and pay Daniela back (about $270). Card rejected; insufficient funds. She tried 500 RON; same thing. Lastly she tried to withdraw 300 RON...BINGO! I was so relieved! Money! I had money!!!!! I extracted what I needed in smaller increments and felt the weight of the last 4 days life off my shoulders. What a nightmare.
Thank God I had the Peace Corps! I never felt alone in my plight because of them. If I couldn't get any money, as a last resort they said they would wire me some money. I can't image what not having them as a support system would have been like. Hmm. Oh, yes, I can. The last time I visited Romania when I ended up in the hospital....
Nothing is ever easy, is it?
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