Angola,
like most countries, has its own currency: the kwanza. It has been the currency
for quite some time but has changed throughout the years, most recently with
the introduction of the 5000 kwanza bill. The money comes in different forms,
shapes, colors, and designs.
The
currency includes 5000, 2000, 1000, 500, 200, 100, 50, 10, and 5 kwanza bills
as well as coins; however, the coins are almost pointless when you consider the
currency exchange. Each bill is a different color and has its own design. The
size of the bill is similar to its worth, meaning the 5000 kwanza bill is the
largest with the 5 kwanza bill being the smallest. What an interesting concept, and one that much of the rest of the world follows.
The best
way for me to explain the kwanza is “monopoly money” because it really has no
value outside of Angola. You wouldn’t use monopoly money to buy a log cabin in
The Game of Life, just like you wouldn’t use kwanza to buy a dress at Von Maur.
The exchange rate to the American dollar is about 100 kwanza per dollar. So, if
a can of soda is 139 kwanza, it is $1.39 in American dollars.
The money
and exchange rate were easy to figure out, a little too easy. So of course
there had to be a catch and that came with the use of separators. The decimal
point and comma are interchangeable here and don’t follow the same rules that
they do in the States. For example, the price of a new television in the States
may be $2,000.00. Knowing the exchange rate, we know that $2,000 is the same as
200,000.00 kwanza. Easy, right? But that isn’t how it is written here, and instead,
the price would be listed as 200.000,00. It has been quite a chore trying to retrain my mind.
The new
form of currency has been a big change in my life. No matter how much or how
often I use the kwanza, I still don’t know how much something is until I do the
exchange rate in my head and compare it to the only form of currency I have
really known my entire life: the American dollar.
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