change, please

"How would you like your change, Madam? In bubblegum or salt?" asks the cashier.

Zimbabwe's recent switchover from its worthless local dollar to the US has been far from smooth. Not only is everything hideously expensive (£3 for a tin of tuna, anyone?), there's never any change. Shoppers are forced to choose between cubes of bubblegum, small packs of biscuits or 40 cent bags of salt as change.

Central bank governor Gideon Gono has spent years printing Zimbabwe dollars, fuelling inflation estimated last month at 89.7 sextillion percent. These days, he can't print US, though he does try. Teachers and civil servants are being paid partly in locally-printed foreign currency "vouchers", supposedly to a total of 100 US. Shops and banks are meant to accept them as legal tender. Not surprisingly, many of them won't. Exasperated locals are calling the coupons "goupons" after their inventor.

At a hotel in the mountainous Vumba district, we want to pay for a couple of coffees and a coke. The bill is 3 US. Because every other outlet that day has insisted on the exact change, we realize that we have nothing smaller than a 20 US note. "It's a problem, Madam," sighs the waiter when we hand over the money. He goes to consult the manager. In the end we're forced to buy a hotel cap -- price 15 US -- to make up the bill.