The muzungu price

One thing people here feel sure of is that muzungus have a lot of money, even if we’re aid workers, students, or people on leave from work. And they have a good point–if you have the means to board a plane and make your way to Africa, by default you have more money than most of the people in Rwanda.

This attitude toward muzungus translates into higher prices for us than a local person would pay. Example…on Monday, Oswald (our driver), Micaela, Etienne, and I traveled to Kigali to pick up some meat, fish, and other items that are better bought in Kigali than here. We had lunch at Karibu, a restaurant I frequented when I was in Kigali in September. (I felt quite cosmopolitan, being able to make a restaurant recommendation in an African capital.) Anyway, a kid was selling very nice laminated maps of Africa and Rwanda on the street. Not wanting to pay an inflated price, I asked Etienne if he would go talk to the boy and find out the price. He talked with the boy then returned to our table. The price: 2000 Frw (about $4). I said I’d like a map of Rwanda and one of Africa; Micaela wanted a map of Rwanda. We gave Etienne the money, and he disappeared around the wall surrounding the restaurant. He returned shortly sans maps. We thought the boy had perhaps relocated down the street, but Etienne said no. He explained that after the boy saw him talking to us and realized that the maps were for muzungus, he raised the price to 2500 Frw, so Etienne wisely declined to purchase. We thanked him for keeping us from getting ripped off and proceeded to enjoy our meal.

After lunch, as we walked toward the car, the same boy approached us with his maps, asking if we wanted to buy. We said no, 2500 was too much, and got in the car. As we pulled away from the curb, he ran alongside the car, banging on the door, yelling, “2000, 2000, I sell for 2000!” So we stopped and bought three maps from him. I’m sure those of you who have traveled a lot have had similar experiences. It always helps when the vendor truly believes you’ll walk away, which we would have.

Another example…the same day, as we were pulling away in the truck from our last stop in Kigali, a man selling The New Times, an English-language Rwandan newspaper, approached me to buy a paper. I’m a bit news-starved here, so I asked how much. Through Etienne, he said 800 Frw (about $1.50). I thought this was a little steep, but we needed to get going and I wanted the newspaper. I shoved it between the seats on the hour-long drive back to Gitarama.

When we got back to the house, I settled into the couch with a cup of tea and my newspaper. Well…not only was the price printed on the front…300 Frw, but to add insult to injury, the newspaper was three days old. So old Mama Warbucks here paid more than double the expected price for a thee-day old paper!