Generosity

Change is always a challenge in this part of the world. And when I refer to change, I am referring to money. Small bills are difficult to come by. And when I say "this part of the world," I also remember that change is difficult to find in Bolivia, too.

Sometimes, this lack of change causes a lot of grief. You have to constantly be thinking about small bills, making sure you have enough, and then hoarding it away so you'll have it when you need it. I realize the hoarding is what just perpetuates the problem.

When you really need the small bills is either for transportation or for the market. Sadly, this lack of small bills causes a lot of frustration and anger in my heart because it can be used by those providing services as an excuse to get more money from the foreigners. If I go to get on a rickshaw, I am always certain I have the exact amount of money because when I go to get off, inevitably, the rickshaw driver asks for more money, and if you have a 50 but had agree on 20, the rickshaw driver may only have 10 or 20 Taka change.

The problem is, I know they have the change. And this makes me angry. But the anger is not even about the money because 10 or 20 Taka is not a lot of money--less than 50 cents.

It's the principle.

Also, it's the foreigner who always gets charged a higher price, but we have figured a good way of working this system. If we know what a Bangladeshi would pay for a rickshaw ride, and if we know what is fair for a foreigner, we don't even ask for a price when we get on the rickshaw. We get on, take the ride, and when we get down, we hand the driver the money and walk away. We know we are being fair. He knows we are paying more than we should. Somehow we all walk away satisfied because we didn't have to haggle and fight for justice in this small thing.

The other day, Melissa and I took a ride that we figured would just be a 20 Taka ride, but the driver, legitimately, had to take a long way around to get to where we wanted to go because there are certain roads he can't drive. At first we figured we'd be generous with 30 Taka rather than the standard 20, but the harder he was working, the more we thought that 30 is just too little for what he was doing. We decided to give him 50. One of my concerns with our system is that some driver might try to fight us once we get down even though our price is fair. Who would win? The Bangladeshi. So the closer we get to our destination, the more I am wondering if 50 is fair. But it is more than double the normal rate.

When we get down, I hand the driver the 50, and this time I pause to see his reaction. Is it fair?

He looked grateful.

He didn't have to fight the foreigner. I didn't have to haggle with the Bangladeshi.

It was at this point that I realized how easy it is to be generous. It does my heart so much good to not fight and become angry. I stay in a better place mentally, and although my system may fail a time or two, overall, my attitude is much better.