Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

| by archiveworldraceblogs

 
Being the financial person on our team this month has certainly had its challenges seeing as the exchange rate here is 1 USD to 16500 Vietnam Dong. I find my self handing out tens of thousands of Dong on a daily basis. For example, the cup of tea that I have sitting to my left is costing me 18,000 Dong. If I wanted to buy a sandwich I would probably pay around 30,000-40,000 Dong. One of the girls bought a purse at the market the other day for 400,000 Dong. I still sometimes sit and stare at these numbers thinking, “Is that right? I think there’s too many zeros.”

Here is an example of a calculation that the finance people must complete on a routine basis:

You have 32 people split up into 6 teams of 4, 5 or 6 members and you will rent a bus that will cost the whole team about 3,800,000 Dong. Remembering that you team budget is about 3 USD per person per day for transportation, you must divide the total amount between the six teams making sure that each team only pays what is fair according to the number or members they have and being sure to not exceed your transportation budget. Ready, Go…

3,000,000 Dong/32 people = 93,750 Dong * number in your group (I have five in my group) 5 = 468,750 Dong for Team Joy to ride the bus. Now take 93,750 Dong per person/ 16,500 Dong = $5.68 USD per person. It looks like this bus is a little over budget.