Misunderstanding Stuff

We moved in a week: start to finish. Like "We had no clue we were going to move" to "Last box is empty" kinda thing. A very important part of that move was obviously the moving truck. Most of our friends, and people we knew with trucks were finishing up their winter vacation before school started, and so I went down to the local place where trucks hang out to be rented/used.
"How much does it cost to move us?"
"R$80"
I have never used a moving truck, and had no clue what was a decent price, but around USD$25 sounded like a great deal to me, and we told him to come at 8am on Saturday. He was there right on time (a plus in Brazil!), and we got down to it.
With the help of some friends (thank you Kervin, Victor, and Danicea!), we had all our stuff at our new place by noon. It took two trips to lug all our stuff from a three bedroom apartment--and now I just had to figure out how to fit it in a two bedroom house.
As Caid went to pay the guy, I noticed hands waving, and I joined the conversation: "He says it is R$160" Rachel." "Nope--I confirmed R$80."
Each. Trip.
What? My moving brain didn't function well, or happily, but we just gave him the money and sat down around boxes, pooped. A small thought came in my head and I asked Kervin: "How many trips does it take most Brazilians to move?"
"One."
I instantly understood and instantly felt squashed. As an American, when asking how much it cost to move us, I figured I was talking about the JOB of moving us. The compete work. The truck mover worked with us for 4 hours--paying him USD$50 was still plenty reasonable, but I felt the pinch of not being "normal."
I don't feel like we have a lot of things, but I am also looking at that as an American. It makes me sigh to realize we have twice the amount of stuff that most of my friends have. It makes me shake my head that even after being here for 15 years there is still so much room for misunderstandings.