whole lot of cash!

Some good friends of ours were trying to sell their car before they went off traveling for four months, but they weren't able to. So I told them, in a piece of Karmic turnabout, that I would sell their car for them. (For those who don't know, when we left the states, I didn't have time to sell the car amidst the chaos of the move. My friend Mike was super generous and sold our car for us. Now it was my turn.)

I was able to sell it about two days after they left, but the buyers were having trouble getting their money from the states (much like we did). I finally completed the sale on Monday at the post office. The where? Yes, the post office. When one sells a car here, one has to go to the post office to complete the sale. They check the identity of the buyer and the seller before processing it. Good way to prevent theft and forgery, but still very strange.

Another strange part of the sale was that people here pay cash for cars. Apparently getting a bank check is a very complicated process so people here pay cash for cars. It was a very weird experience counting out 31,000 shekels in 100 and 200 shekel bills at the dining room table. I almost felt like we should have had a gun and a bottle of whiskey on the table to complete the gangster scene.

When I took the money to the bank to deposit it in my friend's account, the teller didn't blink an eye. I think the teller in the states would have asked some questions if I came in with almost $8000 dollars in cash. I kept singing to myself: Show me the money.