I am visiting Paradise Island (not its real name), a beautiful Island larger than France, in the Indian Ocean. Locals are friendly, most displaying a lot of hospitality. I was unlucky to travel with perhaps the only locals that have not hospitality at all. We departed to a rural area by car Wednesday morning with the intention of returning Thursday night. I packed lunch for the first day (tuna sandwiches, cashews, and soda). I shared my lunch with the locals (driver and my government's counterpart) and invited them beverages once we reached our destination. They warned me that I had failed to bring local currency and that nobody in the countryside would take my dollars, because of the incipient tourism industry. I had with me over a thousand bucks. I asked my counterpart to exchange a few dollars for the local currency and he refused.
On Thursday I had no local currency for breakfast, lunch or dinner. My counterpart that ate my lunch on the previous day, would go alone to the restaurant and return satisfied without offering nothing but a tiny bag of candied bananas. On the return trip, the driver munched candies he bought by the package, without sharing (he also refused to exchange money or lend some currency). We arrived 11 pm to my hotel that fortunately offers a great room service, satiating my 28-hour hunger in no time.
I cannot make any generalization. I still don't know why they acted like that, since my grant's administrator had given them enough cash for fuel and incidental expenses. Read Maupassant's "Boule de suif" to learn how bad an experience like this -mine sans gang rape- can be. I clearly need to improve my negotiation skills. I should have asked "what do I need to tell you in order to persuade you to give me some local currency?".
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