I have been trying to figure out whether I am wealthy or not. While sitting in Canada, my monthly stipend from CIDA seemed like a meager sum. Now sitting in Malawi, this money will clearly go very far, but I am just not sure how far…….
1 Canadian dollar exchanges for about 140 Malawian Kwacha. To give you a sense of how much basic things cost:
one public taxi ride to work = 70 kwacha
one heap of green beans at the market = 50 kwacha
5 tomatoes at the market = 50 kwacha
2 L bottled water = 108 kwacha
1.5 weeks worth of electricity = 500 kwacha
Things at the grocery stores are more expensive, but I think with balancing the two sources I will be able to keep my food budget reasonable.
I have been noticing that many of my fellow foreigners take on a new attitude to money once they have gotten used to the Kwacha and what it can buy. At the market, there is a lot of negotiating to get fruits and vegetables as cheaply as possible. Now perhaps it is just my personal dislike of bargaining, but come on – it is already less than 50 cents! Things that we would be paying more for without question should suddenly be available dirt-cheap.
Then in my pursuit of finding a private taxi for hire I have encountered the same attitude. To hire a taxi to drive me after 6 pm costs about 800 kwacha a direction. My companions were astounded at this price, and may not be willing to pay it. Now, compared to a lot of other things in Malawi, this does indeed sound very expensive. But when converted, it is about $6.30 – comparable to a cheap cab ride in downtown Toronto or Montreal.
So my question is, at what point are we foreigners simply playing the economic game of the developing countries in which we live, and at what point are we becoming greedy?
My thinking tends towards being wary of the ‘greed trap’. I think it is nice to enjoy the cheap cost of basic foodstuffs and a bus ride to work. However, I do not think I am in a position to complain about a $6.30 cab ride after dark. Sure it would be nice if it were really cheap, but it is not more than I would be paying back at home – so what’s the problem?
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Tricky.
I've definitely found myself haggling over fifty cents and wondering the same thing.
The conclusion I've come to, for myself, is that it's important to show a respect for the local value of things. Just because a marked up price might not make a very big difference to me, my pooh-poohing it or shrugging it off could be taken as 1) my insultingly or condescendingly flaunting my riches 2) a sign of my utter stupidity. Put yourself in a situation where you might be dealing with someone who you suspect has much more money than you, because of where they're from, or how they dress. Like, as a stupid hypothetical ... your friends' cousin from the Hamptons who drives a Porsche. You're hanging out and out of the blue, she asks you how much you want for, say, your paperback. The thing cost about $15 new, and you think you might be able to get that much for it, but you want to try your luck, so you offer it for fifty bucks, thinking she'll never take it. The lady shrugs and hands you a fifty dollar bill. Now what do you think? There is definitely a tendency for locals in some countries to quote exorbitant prices for things to foreigners, assuming they'll get the extra money because the foreigners either don't care or don't know any better.
For example, our local friend in Peru was furious when he found out that Phil and I had been negotiating every time we got into a cab to pay fares that were 5-10 soles ... because cab rides anywhere within the city limits are fixed at a price of 3 soles (about $1). It might not matter too much to me on a cab ride that I paid 3 dollars for instead of 1, but I've also been ripped off of hundreds of dollars, for example at a border crossing, and I think those actions are born of the same type of mentality - that it's okay to steal from foreigners because they're rich and stupid. (And we were still really angry about the cab rides! We basically got played for idiots ... over and over and over ... )
So I think that when I travel to another country, it's my responsibility to other travellers, to myself, and to locals to be informed about how much I should be paying for things, and to stick to my guns about paying fair prices.
That said, it's a fine line between that and just being greedy ...
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