Mzungu!

Prior to leaving, my good friend Christine had asked me to keep track of how many times I was called "MZUNGU" during my travels. "Mzungu" from what I understand, is Swahili for "white person," and I believe that it has the mildly derogatory connotation kind of along of the lines of "ooh-look-at-that-clueless-little-white-foreigner." Or maybe it doesn't. It's the first time in my life I've actually been referred to as 'white' and probably the only time. I'm not comfortable being singled out because of what I look like, but then again, I guess there is no harm in being honest and calling a mzungu a mzungu. In any case, as an apparently rich mzungu, you live in a special financial universe in which prices for all things are inflated by 20 to 8000%.

The most striking example of this came yesterday morning. Avi and I were thinking we should get out of town for a short day trip somewhere. We had not had the time to do the proper sleuthing, but we had heard from previous volunteers that it was not too difficult or expensive to hire a driver. Through chatting with hospital employees, we found someone who was willing to take us this weekend even though it was quite last minute. So at 8 am on Saturday morning, the driver and his employer show up to pick us up. They park the car, get out, and start to chat pleasantly with us about whether or not we should go to Kibuye or Gitarama, both of which are around 130km away. We decide that maybe Kibuye sounds like a nice quiet place to spend the weekend, so all that's left is to find out how much it will cost.
"So, how much will this cost?"
The employer looks at us and says, "$500 USD."
I think Avi and I dropped our jaws at the same time. I ask "For the weekend??!?"
"Yes, well the fuel alone is $100 USD."
"Ok, so what is the additional $400 USD for?"
An awkward silence ensues. That pretty much said all we needed to hear.

After some profuse apologies for getting them to wake up so early and for underestimating how high the gas prices and cost of living is in Rwanda, we say goodbye to the drivers. As they drove off, we shook our heads and wondered whether anyone else had fallen for that. It's too bad their greed had gotten the better of them; had they proposed something like $150 USD we might have gone for it and they still would have made a profit on us. Anyway, I'll be sure to put out a subtle gentle warning out on this dude for the CASIEF volunteers who come after us.