Shakedown in Butare

I had vowed not to write anything negative about Rwanda but the simple egregiousness of this needs to be mentioned.

I do have limited experience travelling in developing countries; I am aware however that a certain small minority of people regard travellers as unlimited untapped pools of cash. This is unfortunately also true in parts of the developing world as well. I can certainly see their point. Even the scruffiest backpacker is probably wealthier than 99% of the population. I am aware that we probably pay more for taxis, and that we pay more in the market although not outrageously more. On the other hand we have been treated with the utmost courtesy by most of the Rwandans we have met. With the following exception.

Twice during our stay here we have gone to Butare to teach the residents there. When in Butare we stay in the Hotel Credo which has seen better days but has a pool and has not generated a "large African insect story". When we checked in the first time we had Mary and Mike, Brady's dad in tow. The well-dressed smiling desk clerk informed us that they were unaware that we would be bringing guests and that we would have to pay extra for them. This is even though Mary and I were sharing a bed. Fine, we said. The hotel was bed and breakfast and so the next morning we were charged for Mary and Mike's breakfast. Fine again. On checking out two days later, Mary paid a further 4000 Rwf per night. No problem.

On our second trip the same smiling desk clerk informed us that the ante was now up to 17000 Rwf for what we thought was two nights. To put things in perspective, there are 600 Rwf to 1 US$. A little steep but something we would deal with. In addition we were charged for breakfast both days. On checking out Friday morning the cruncher came. The ante for Mary to stay was now 34000 Rwf. Now the hotel posts it's rates behind the desk and we could clearly see that one room one bed was 25000 Rwf for one person and 29000 Rwf for 2 people. That, I pointed out comes to $8000 which I would not very happily pay. But, says the smiling clerk, we gave the University at discount on your room and only charged them 11-12,000 Rwf therefore for the privilege of sleeping with your wife you have to make up the different between the discounted rate and 29,000. I asked to speak to the manager and he phoned someone and after a long conversation in Kinyarwandi, he told us that he was sorry but that was policy. The manager was on his way, however and about a minute later a man in a tracksuit and sunglasses arrived. Men who wear tracksuits and sunglasses in Canada are generally drug dealers or gangsters and I was a little concerned. 8000 Rwf is my final offer I bravely announced and eventually that is what we paid.

We were by now late for our teaching but I ran into Dr. Theo and told him what had happened. Dr. Theo said, no it is 4000 per night and phoned somebody at the university who phoned back later and confirmed that that was in fact the case.

We came back to the hotel a couple of hours later to reclaim our bags which we had checked. The desk clerk was still smiling, nothing was missing from our bags and we were on our way.