Money. We usually get 1200 Iraqi dinar to the dollar, and dollars are equally welcome (or a mix of dollars and dinars) at every shop and for virtually any purchase. There are no coins and the smallest denomination in circulation is 250IQD bill, so you end up with pockets full of them and they (the blue ones) and the 1000 (brown) are all filthy, torn, taped and disintegrating - as bad as old Egyptian or Indian bills. The bigger bills are sometimes new and crisp.

We are paid in dollars into a Lebanese account and can in theory withdraw from a cash machine in the school but it's usually out of order. In desperation (as most are flying out on Friday, though not me) several of us went on the bus to the branch today for cash. It was a very casual process: tellers half-heartedly dealing with three people at once, vaguely stamping forms and shouting instructions over their shoulders. To withdraw, you hand over a cashcard (no ID or pin) and they announce (to everyone) your balance, and you announce (to everyone) how much you want. When you collect your money from the cashier, they ask you if it's this figure or that figure, from the chits they have in front of them, and you choose, and walk away with your cash (or someone else's).

And when you get back to school of course the cash machine is working again.