Misc. info and the cost of things...

We are slowly making our way through the gifts we brought from US for the presenters. We nominated one of the guys to be the official gift giver (Go Kevin!) and to thank the people that have been sharing their time and knowledge with us. Before leaving Chicago we actually each took out the gifts we purchased, spread them out on the hotel lobby (I don't know if the hotel appreciate it), and ensured that all 68+ gift bags had equivalent types of things in them - depending on if they were for schools or presenters.

It is very strange to think about how much things cost here and how that amount would translate into dollars. For example, I turned down a rickshaw that was going to charge me 100R for a trip to the market...$1.50. He then came down to 30R and I still turned him down (75 cents). When he got to 20R, 50 cents, I accepted. On the other hand, I purchased some Gatorade (at a food import store) and it cost 275R...a large chunk of my evening meal allowance. (Many people have bought tunics/tops for less than my Gatorade...although they probably weren't as rehydrated afterwards.) And no, I am still not going to say how much I paid for my "bargain" of clothes earlier in the week especially after all the clothes people have purchased for so much less this week.

Another example of the difference in cost is in the price of textbooks. We visited the National Council of Education Research and Training this week. They are the organization that plans the national framework for all subjects, conducts research, and writes some of the textbooks. We had a session with their leaders that zoomed by because we all had so many questions about each other’s educational systems. We were given the opportunity to visit their bookstore land purchase some of their textbooks. I think all of us were surprised when we entered it. First, there were no books…something I have come to expect when I go to a bookstore…but perhaps that is just me. Instead, the parents go to a counter, tell the employees what books their student needs, and the employee goes back into the warehouse to retrieve the books. (Perhaps we should try this method here since I would save so much money at Barnes and Noble/Borders if I wasn’t tempted by the rest of the books.) The price was the other thing that surprised me. I purchased 6 science textbooks (soft-bound and in color). In the US, I would think that each of them would sell for about $20-25 bucks each based on size and content. However, I paid 445 R for all of them (about $11).