Upfront, Cash Only

As far as we can tell, credit cards, checks and the whole concept of monthly billing don’t really exist here. We learned last week that cell phones are all pre-pay. You buy the phone and a chip that corresponds to a certain cellular company (there are at least 4 to choose from) and then you buy these scratch off cards from the corresponding company and load money onto your phone. Calling is kind of expensive but texting is cheap (even overseas if anyone wants to text us!!) and receiving calls is free (even from overseas if anyone wants to call us!!). The scratch off cards are literally sold by anyone that sells anything anywhere. So long as you have cash, reloading is no problem. And if you want to change companies, you just get a new chip for your phone. Just the other day we learned that you can get wireless internet by essentially the same process. You buy a card for your computer from a cellular company, loaded it up with money and then it deducts value for every byte of data your transfer. Electricity in your house is the same. There are little offices around where you pay cash in exchange for a card that you insert into a box at home to allow the lights to turn on. You can even watch you pre-paid kWatts tick down (more on this particular topic to come from Brandt). This is different than what we’re used to but by no means an unreasonable approach paying for your use of a service. However, this approach is kind of pretty weird when it comes to rent. Apparently, it’s standard to pay 6 months and sometimes even a whole year of rent in cash upfront. I think this is insane. The largest denomination bill that exists is 10,000 Tanzanian shillings (Tsh). This is a little less than $10. So the 2.4 million Tsh for the six months rent plus the fee for the guy amounted to one huge brick o’ cash. To us, the transaction felt more like a sketchy drug deal from a Hollywood movie than the paying of rent. Brandt was Tubbs to my Crocket. We rolled up with our cash wad stashed in our backpack feeling very skeptical of the whole thing. We enter the house and they indicate that we should sit down. The “guy” sits quietly on a chair in the corner seeming like the body guard. The women tells us we have to wait for her son. He’s bringing “the contract.” There are other people around and we’re not really sure who they are or why they are there but they all talk to each other rapidly in Swahili. Yes, this is exactly how it goes down in the movies and we are clearly the goofy white people that are way WAY out of their league. After a brief eternity, the son (he’s supposedly a doctor) shows up. Sorry, no contract. How about we just write up some bullshit on a piece of paper, you give us all your money and we’ll sign the real contract tomorrow? Hmmm…suspicious. Are we getting scammed? It’s a definite possibility. The son starts writing the bullshit contract. He asks his mother his mother a question in in Swahili. The answer we understood to be the agreed upon price and he responds with a smirk. Increasingly skeptical, I say we’ll give you half the money now and half the money tomorrow. Sure. No problem. Whatever you want. But of course that means we have to leave the house and go back out into the big scary world and walk down the insane street and get on the insane bus. We could be mugged at any moment and have all the money stolen. Yes, we’re in real pickle now. The son gives Brandt his cell number. Brandt calls it and the phone rings. Well that’s good but all he needs is a new chip to change the phone number so how much security is that really? We casually try whispering to each other. Brandt, with his Midwestern wholesomeness, says he thinks it’s ok to give them all the money. I’m skeptical but am I just being paranoid? In the end, the thought of taking the half wad o’ cash with us seems worse and so we give it all to them and hope for the best.