When money turns into worthless paper

people become poor overnight. Food, medicine and gas instantly transform into a black market. The Lebanese currency collapsed multiple times when I was growing up. Sadly it’s in the process of catastrophically collapsing again.

My parents taught us about real estate and gold. Turn your money into real assets and do not rely on banks. Banks can hold your money when you need it the most. Store enough food for years in advance. Have weapons to defend your home. Have iron gates. Stay together.

When we watched poor people in cartoons or read about them in story books, like Oliver Twist, their clothes had holes, and patches sewn on top of the holes with big stitches.

One day we were playing with our neighbors, and we wanted to continue playing at their home. Their mom told us: go home and change then you can play with my kids. We went home not knowing what was wrong with our clothes. They had big yellow leather patches sewed with big stitches on top of some holes. The war had made us poor.

That Spring our house got electrocuted. Our school uniforms got burnt while on a washing line that got in contact with a non-insulated electric wire. They fell on the floor with melted collars and crumbled and hardened shoulders. My parents, whose money was now worthless, saved the house and our lives, but could not buy new school uniforms. We went to school with collarless uniforms and parts of our shoulders exposed through pinching holes.

We asked my mom not to use the yellow leather patches to cover the holes. Between patches and holes, we chose holes.