Going to the Bank--Only in Togo!!

Yesterday was the day I decided to conquer the bank on my own. I was armed with a French to English dictionary and my account information, and not to mention my very LIMITED French vocabulary. I had two reasons for going to the bank; #1. Deposit my pay check and #2. Transfer funds from my Togo account to my Bank of America account in the US. The first goal was acheived with minimul effort and a whole lot of pointing and gesturing. In order to achieve the second goal, however, I had to go to the main bank on the other side of town and meet with the ONLY lady who could help me. So today I go and meet with the lady who can transfer the money for me and it went well, despite the language barrier. Once again, a lot of pointing and gesturing. So far this sounds like just your average Togo bank visit...do not make that assumption so quickly. While I was sitting in the office with the ONLY lady in the entire bank who can help me, in walks a woman with a huge bag... To my surprise her bag was full of bootleg designer purses that she was attempting to sell to the bank lady (whose name I will not use for confidentiality reasons:-). These two women proceed to have a 10 minute exchange about the purses and their costs. Well...being the retail expert that I am I had to had my input, in French of course. So here I am at the main branch of a Togo bank, in the office of the woman in charge of international transfers and I am haggling the price down for this purse:-) Only in Togo.