Money in East Africa is a funny thing. Life is expensive and
cheap all at once. It partially depends on how you want to live for sure –like an
Expat or more like a local person. Prices often reflect the ability to produce
something locally vs needing to import it and if it is imported how rare it is.
But labor also plays a huge role – most service oriented things are super
cheap. You can get a shave or your shoes shined for less than $1. The public
system costs next to nothing. To go about 10 minutes down the road for example,
I’ll pay 200 francs, or about .30 cents. For an amazing description on taking motos (bodaboda in Uganda) check out my friend and co-worker Jen's piece:
East African buffet is really popular here. East Africa
buffet, at least the type of about $1.30, usually means carb buffet, all you
can eat. Spaghetti, fries (or chips as they call them), sweet potato, potato
wedges, rice, beans, maybe some collards or one other type of greens, and
usually a tomato-e beef stew. It’s almost never that good but not that bad
either. You get sick of it though and you decide you want a pizza, lasagna,
nice chicken dinner and you can expect to pay upwards of $10. That’s how it is,
usually high-end cuisine and something different, or local cheap rice and beans
type of food. In Kigali, you can also find crazy Western things like natural
food stores and burrito places and Kigali is more expensive than Kampala and probably most East African capitals (it's an aid darling, lots of Expats, reconstruction money probably has played a big part).
Shopping for food illustrates some similar principles. The
supermarkets here are not all that different than our supermarkets. Never as
big or as elaborate and usually more expensive. Our food is so cheap we really
don’t realize it (assuming you aren't shopping at Whole Foods all the time). Getting East African buffet for $1.30 right near my house,
lots of food, little work, and cheap, means cooking really makes no sense ever
unless I want to entertain guests, making something special, or have some inexplicable desire to clean dishes. The market (usually outdoor with lots of vendors who come together on certain days of the week) is an
exception though as produce can be very cheap. Kimironko Market, pictured here from both
inside and out with my roommates Johanna from New Zealand and David (also the
landlord) is one of the bigger ones in Kigali. Everything is negotiated and it can be a pretty stressful experience, especially when you don't know what the prices should be and you are afraid of getting ripped off at every corner. People are yelling at you to buy their produce
as if it didn't matter what you were actually looking for, which to me seems
like the obvious reason why you’d buy one produce or another –not just because
someone yells a price at you. I don't need eggplant thank you (and I don't like it)! There’s also all of the “bag boys” running after
you looking for a job of carrying your stuff. It’s kind of nice having this
service offered and it’s annoying because they really come after you and it can be hard to even make it back to your car.
Playing soccer, Frisbee, or tennis (much more so than in
Kampala) is relatively cheap – it usually entails a $1.50-$300 contribution or some type of entrance fee depending on what it is. I had the strangest experience the other day going to an internet café to
buy “cash power” as they call it here as we needed it for frisbee. You go to these random spots that have
the power service from a national company (EWSA) which you buy digitally, get a printed
slip, and then have the mobile power ability to go anywhere. I have no idea how you even know who offers this and who doesn't. There's not necessarily a sign. I paid about $6
the other night for two hours that I brought to a large field to light the
place up at night. You just type in a code in this box and it transfers the cash power to wherever you are. I think our landlord David might do the same thing to electrify our house.
On the more expected higher end of pricing you have tennis
balls - but not as much as it is - $16 for one can. There's also things like batteries (real ones, not the cheap, terrible Chinese ones they had here) or Iphone plugs (I lost just the power adapter part
that goes into the wall) - and it's an astounding $35!
So
basically you choose how you live, eat, and play and sometimes it’s not that
much different than pricing back in Boston and other times it’s incredible how
cheap or expensive something is. You really have to adapt your expectations and
understanding of pricing when living here.
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