The first day I was in Belarus, we walked all over the city. At one point, I told my friend that I needed to get some Belarussian money. A bit later, we stopped at an ATM so I could do just that.
The Belarussian ruble, while named the same as the Russian unit of currency, is completely different. I was not sure how much money I should withdraw and, at that point, I had no idea what the exchange rate actually was. I knew that about two years ago it cost around 2000 rubles to buy one American dollar and about a year ago, it cost around 4500 rubles to buy one American dollar. The last year had been very difficult economically, and current exchange rate was about 8500 rubles to $1. That is more than 400 percent devaluation in two years.
So I decided to withdraw 1,000,000 rubles - making me a millionaire in Belarus. I received five 20,000 ruble notes, three 50,000 ruble notes, and six 100,000 ruble notes. Unfortunately, that million was worth less than $120, but it sure felt strange. Later in my week there, I withdrew 1,500,000 rubles - getting five 10,000 ruble notes, eleven 50,000 ruble notes, and nine 100,000 ruble notes. Again, it felt like a lot of money.
They have no coins in Belarus. The smallest note in circulation now is a 10 ruble note, which is also smaller in size than all the others. All but the smaller notes have pictures of famous places in Belarus along with a watermark in a white space that is clearly visible in the light. There are notes of 10; 20; 50; 100; 500; 1,000; 5,000; 10,000; 20,000; 50,000; and 100,000 rubles.
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Close-up of the 50,000 ruble note with other notes beneath |
My gift for Hope, it reads "I know I'm only little but I love you lots and lots!" |
My gift for Denise, it says Belarus (in Russian) |
How about you? Are you thankful for what you have? Do you realize there are many people who are worse off than you?
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