How to Make Money in Zambia (Scott's post)

Earning money in Zambia is tough.  Especially in the villages, there are ZERO regularly paying jobs and selling goods to fellow villagers is rare because demand is low for many of the items that a villager has access to sell because they are easily acquired by other villagers already, like bush rope, grass for roofs, corn, and cassava.  And due to the lack of education in the village, government jobs are usually out of reach.  From an outsiders perspective it would appear that most villagers don't need "jobs" because they already have a job working their fields and producing their daily staples for their own consumption.  Most of their building products are free since they are acquired by a relatively short walk in the bush.  The few items that are considered essential are not that expensive, like salt, or soap, or they are durable, like pots and plates, and may have been used for a couple of generations before another is needed.  But those who want to save a little extra Kwacha to buy another set of clothes or luxuries have a couple of options. The most common way is for those who grow crops, which is everyone in the village, to sell some of their extra produce such as beans, tomatoes, eggplant, various green leafy vegetables, groundnuts (peanuts), pineapples, sweet potatoes, onions, and irish potatoes. Others who raise animals, in particular goats, cows, and pigs, will slaughter one occasionally and have a sale that day or even the next, which is regrettable since there is no refrigeration in the village.  Others who have a skill such as making charcoal, chairs, hoes, axes, doormats, reed mats, or clothing can make those items and sell some of them to fellow villagers but usually go to the BOMA (nearest large town with a market) because they can get a higher price there.  Still others will hire themselves out for piece work, usually involving back-breaking labor such as digging a fish pond, or assist with a fish harvest, or carry goods or construction materials from one place to another.  I've mentioned before we have some great helpers in the village to assist with brick molding, fence building, gathering tree poles for construction, etc.  After some months in the village realizing that these guys were legitimately generous and not just helping for money in return, we started arranging payment for their assistance on big jobs.  A few entrepreneurs who make a little money in one of the ways mentioned will go to the BOMA and purchase popular items like biscuits (cookies), sugar, cooking oil, tobacco, and other small items and sell them for a small markup in the village. 

Another way, which also is attempted sometimes in America but usually less successful because more people are educated and corruption is not as tolerated, is to cheat the system.  One day Ryford and I had to take a bus to a workshop.  I didn't see the ticket salesman, but got on the bus because I wanted to make sure I got a good seat.  When we saw the ticket salesman selling tickets for our bus I asked Ryford to buy us tickets while I saved our seats.  He returned with the tickets, no change, and the receipts, and I noticed that the price on the receipts was less than what I gave him.  When I mentioned it to him he jumped up and went to question the salesman.  Please note that we consider Ryford a very honest person and do not consider it likely that he would have tried to pocket the change for himself, as he has bought things for us before.  He returned with the proper change.  I spoke to other Peace Corps volunteers about this later and they confirmed that a common activity of the ticket salesman is to charge more for the bus than it typically costs and pocket the over charge for himself and maybe the driver or bus attendant.  The fact that the correct price was on the receipt told me that the bus company managers don't tolerate this kind of embezzlement, or else the ticket salesman would write the inflated price on the ticket.

On the same bus trip I observed a second way to make money in Zambia dishonestly.  The bus had standing room only.  That is, every seat was full yet more paying customers continued to come aboard.  This is not allowed in Zambia, but happens all the time, presumably so the bus company can try to make as much money as possible per bus trip.  This overbooking usually leads to elbows in the head, chickens at your feet, or someone else's luggage pressing into your knees or side for the entire bus trip, as well as increasing the danger of even the smallest of accidents.  I noticed also a young woman holding a baby in her arms sitting at the front of the bus over the engine compartment.  The bus got stopped at a checkpoint in the road. Yes, Zambia does have checkpoints in the road sometimes stationed with Zambian police.  Before the bus was boarded by an officer, the woman at the front passed her baby to a passenger further back in the bus.  The officer glanced quickly into the bus and then talked with the bus attendant briefly.  The bus attendant asked to speak to someone else, presumably someone with more authority.  The bus attendant was then shown to a small building nearby related to the checkpoint.  He greeted the officer in charge with a sheepish grin and the officer obviously knew the bus attendant.  After a few moments in the privacy of the building the attendant came out with a grin and the bus went on its way without one person getting off the bus.  From what I gathered by the body language of those involved and the woman passing her baby back out of site of the officer, the attendant made a deal with the officer to split the extra profit the company was making with the extra people it was carrying, in return for passage past the checkpoint.  The woman with the baby was probably asked by the attendant to temporarily move the baby back so that the officer wouldn't have a compelling reason to make people get off the bus or to make the bribe easier for the attendant to negotiate.

There are lots of things I like in Zambia, but mass transit is not one of them, partially for this reason.  I will appreciate mass transit in America all the more after this experience.