Making Change

Mom and Dad are in town. We spent the day with a short-term team that is here for a week. This morning we went to Policlinica and this afternoon we spent the day at Pastor Domingo's house just enjoying time with his family and letting the team get to know him and his family. They have a river behind their home that we splashed in, and hung out playing dominoes and eating guacamole. But, that's not today's story.

Hanley Wiki:

Policlinica - a neighborhood near the Iglesia Nueva Vida tent where a large number of church members live. At one point it was going to be a Clinic, a small hospital, but it was never completed. Following a natural disaster in which many peoples homes were flooded, the government moved them to this area. Thus the neighborhood of Policlinica was born.


After dropping the team off at the hotel we decided to get pico pollo, grilled/rotisserie chicken sold at little stands throughout town. One of our favorites we call "Poli-Chicken" because it is near Policlinica. Unfortunately, the only denomination of peso we had was a 1000 peso bill, about 30 dollars. Well, a whole chicken with yuca is only $200 pesos (about $7). I knew breaking a 1000 was going to be trouble, so when I ordered I asked, "Can you change 1000", they checked and decided they couldn't. However, there was a white truck parked down the street that sales bottled cokes and water to the little restaurants, and the chicken vendor say, "Go ask him, he has money." So I walked down the street, waited for him to finish a conversation, and asked, "Can you change 1000". He checked and said no, but he told me that he needed to collect a bill from a restaurant, and if they paid he would have change. So, I waited for him to go collect his bill. When he returned he told me that they didn't pay today. I returned to Poli-chicken with my 1000 pesos. The vendor suggested the grocery store, the other direction. I went to the grocery store, and they told me that they could give me to 500 peso bills. So, with my two 500 peso bills I returned to Poli-chicken. The assistant chicken vendor, pulled all the bills out to change my 500, and had to take some coins from her back pocket to change my $500 for the chicken. So now, having worked up an appetite we went home to enjoy some tasty chicken!!!

For more pictures of the day, click on the album below:

Day with team at Domingos