BRAC

I could go on and on about BRAC, and what a phenomenal organization it is, but first, I want to finish this book I'm reading called "Freedom from Want" by Ian Smillie.

As I read the book, I realize that Rent-to-Own, the business I started just over 1 year ago in Zambia, has a lot of similar challenges and goals. Of course we're still small and have just $100,000 of micro-credit in action, I can see how we can quickly have 3 or $4 million in the next few years.

What the story of BRAC is making me realize, is that it'll never grow to its full potential without some help.

So for this post, I'm asking for some assistance. Rent-to-Own is expanding into new parts of the country and could offer credit to as many as 50,000 people within the next year if all goes well.

I'll get into the details of what I found cool in the book on my next post, right now I still have 100 pages of reading to do.

If you like my work, I would really really appreciate a small donation. I can't express how much it does for the small businesses and farmers that we work with.

Mr. Bombwe beside his vegetable farm.

He has a new diesel pump so he can expand his farm.

click here to help - https://perspectives.ewb.ca/markhemsworth

Thank you kindly.

Mark

Success (part 2)

In my last post, I mentioned how I came to the conclusion that investment was the answer to the development of Zambia. I also mentioned that Zambia has to become more productive to compete on the global markets so that it can first get ahead before having the capacity to refine the way it operates to reach some sort of equilibrium state.

If I were President, I would look at the entire country the same way I look at my company. I want everyone to be busy, to be productive, and to be happy. There are millions of people though, all of different skills and different ages – meanwhile what is required to run the country has a complexity beyond what I can know. So instead of thinking of all the things I don’t know, here is my best guess based on what I do know.

There are three different time frames for the investments that are needed.

Short term (under 5 years), Medium term (5-19 year), and Long term (20+ years)

Short Term

Zambia needs to first improve its low skill work force. Simple things like the trades (construction, mechanics, etc). The life expectancy for the average Zambian today is just 39 years. So if we want to see changes in the next 5 years, we need to look at trade schools which can improve a person’s skills within 2 years. Right now the state of the government trade schools is pathetic and this forces Zambian companies to import these skills to get the job done, thus increasing the cost of doing business, and decreasing the competitiveness of its exports on the global market.

Medium Term

Zambia needs to look to two things, its health care and its infrastructure. Infrastructure, at least, has grabbed a lot of attention from the government, however, the purpose for this attention isn’t to improve the enabling environment for businesses to operate in, and instead, it is to gain votes for the next election. There are hundreds of km’s of roads that were built just 2 years ago and are already falling apart because the contractors who built them were not monitored properly, or the gov’t used cheap specifications when accepting bids for those contracts. Regardless, the end result is a perpetual state of repair which is so inefficient that it hurts.

Then there is health care. A year ago there was a photo of a woman giving birth to child in the parking lot of a health care clinic (with no nurse or doctor in sight) which was published on the front page of the news. The photo captured the essence of a defunct health care system where the vast majority of the population is effectively without access to any health care professional. The impact this has on the quality of life, and on the economy, is astounding. In a country where some 25% of adults are HIV positive – and not living to the age of 40, clearly this is an area that has to be addressed before Zambia can feel any success. I remember the day my friends wife went into labour, and we drove from one clinic to another, continuously being turned away because either the power was off, or the water was off, or the doctor was out. Then I learned that the biggest hospital in the country, UTH (University Teaching Hospital) was no different – they didn’t have a water tank!!!! Seriously, the hospital shuts down when the city turns off the water, which is often.

Long Term

Investing in education. There are many days when I think of stopping everything I’m doing with Rent-to-Own and refocusing all my effort towards education in Zambia. There are so many reasons why this is the most important thing for Zambia’s long term development. The first reason is for health awareness. The link between education and health is undeniable. There is a stat that indicates something like every extra year a girl spends in school; the chances of her getting HIV go down by 10%. Then there is the use of family planning – which reduces the average size of a family, which allows parents to invest more in each child. Then there is the skill level of Zambians and their ability to contribute to the economy. The talent pool. The list goes on, and the reason I think I care about this so much is because I believe that a good education should be a human right. It’s true that Zambia has mostly free primary education, but it’s also true that the quality is outright pathetic. Kids are in class a maximum of 60 days a year, and most of those days they’ll receive less than 4 hours of instruction. This is how someone can graduate from high school without knowing what a percentage means, or knowing how to spell simple words.

Please don’t rush out and donate to an organization that is building schools, because much like hospitals, the problem isn’t to have another building, the problem is to have qualified people doing the teaching and providing the health care. I’ve been to schools here where there are over 300 students and just 2 teachers. I’ve seen how the average student receives just 12 hours of instruction a week, and how failure rates for standardized tests can reach 95% in rural areas.

What does the first step look like?

Unfortunately, underlying all these investments, there needs to be a tax base. Luckily for Zambia, there are thousands of tons of copper being produced every week. So what is the problem here? Low royalties. The current government scrapped windfall taxes that earned Zambia some $400 million when the price of copper goes above $6000/ton. Well, prices are now above $8000 and the same tiny taxes are being collected. I could go on and on about this, but instead I’ll put a link to a blog that does this for me - http://www.zambian-economist.com/search?q=copper It is common knowledge that the Chinese (and other) mining companies that operate in Zambia, pay bribes to the government to control these taxes – and that the Zambian government accepts these bribes. So if I were to add an “immediate term” change that is required, I’d adjust the royalty scheme so that more money is paid in taxes and less in bribes. I also wonder why the president didn’t immediately come out and condemn the shooting of 10 miners by a Chinese manager! Seriously, what is going on here? Chile’s president comes to save their miners trapped underground, meanwhile not a peep from Zambia’s president when his miners are being shot at. - http://bit.ly/b9RKwE

With adjustments to the royalties collected, the gov’t could work towards training better teachers, paying wages on time, paying better wages, and starting to privatize the trades institutes, and paying for more research into HIV and Malaria prevention, and focusing on quality infrastructure.

The bottom line here, don’t forget, is to run the country like a business. Have happy citizens, healthy, educated and productive citizens. Somehow I feel that this isn’t the goal of the current government, and somehow I feel like Zambians don’t expect their government to live up to these standards.

Time to put my head back down and just keep doing what I know. Rent-to-Own. More productive SME’s in the rural areas and more jobs.

What is Success

Success

Before coming to Zambia, I spent 4 weeks training with 10 other people in Toronto. The training is part of EWB’s program to prepare us for a new culture and to explain why the development sector operates the way it does. Within those 4 weeks, the most useful exercise I found was examining a single word. Accountability was my favourite.

Now I wonder about SUCCESS, what does it mean? What does it mean to me, and for Zambia, and especially for the millions of households across rural Zambia?

Since I arrived in February of 2008, my personal success has been divided into different areas. I knew I wanted to help rural Zambians get ahead. I knew I wanted to help my partner organization which purchases Honey from 6000 farmers every year. And I knew I wanted to contribute to a team of EWB volunteers who are all working to achieve the same goal. So I analysed for over a year, trying to figure out how I could help more. There were hundreds of epiphanies along the way, including one where I realized that everything is a process. From a cooked meal and all that goes into it, to the movie I watch on my laptop. So if everything was a process, then everything required work – and thus jobs. It might be true that one job can create 20 more jobs, but how do you get started when the biggest concern most people have is just on surviving. How do you go from subsistence living to a life where you can specialize in one area, and develop those skills to compete with people in other countries? I thought about this and finally came up with Investment as my conclusion. But how can this happen, and why isn’t it happening already? This opened up a million other questions about the world and the way the economy works. The simplest answer I could come up with for why it wasn’t already happening was that it wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t profitable.

Let’s get back to success. In short, my conclusion was that more investment in rural Zambia would bring success. I later added the idea that equipment was the way to invest since equipment increased efficiency and productivity, thus competitiveness.

But I have to back up, and ask if I went the wrong way somewhere. I have an amazing friend in Regina who has this ability to take everything I have considered success and put a new light on it. To question it from the foundation. She asked me two questions that stumped me at the time. The first, was about the end goal for rural Zambia. She asked if increasing productivity was really the answer. True that it might increase incomes, but in her mind, that was following the same path that Canada and other western countries have taken. Is this the right path? Flying into any major city, I have to admit that the pollution seen in the air makes me second guess everything. Then looking at the morals of our society, I also second guess. Then even worse still, looking at the spiritual health of our society – and our pathetic connection to the food we eat and the land we live on, makes me really doubt that this is the correct path.

The second question she asked was about a year later. I told her that the best part about helping businesses for development, rather than NGO’s, was because every business transaction has two players who are both empowered and have the freedom to choose if they want to transact or not. (whereas most donation type transactions are a one way street, and thus the recipient is actually powerless in the process) Her response was that even business influences the way a population develops, and who am I to direct this?

She had taken my success and ripped it up from its core. I stopped everything and had to question my own actions, the actions I believe in and have dedicated so much time and energy towards.

After some time reflecting, I realized that the question to her first question was simple. I don’t know how else a country can develop. The world has been effectively globalized, and the benefits of being part of this global economy outweigh the costs. Education and health care are the biggest benefits. My belief is that Canada and much of the west are only at stage 5 out of 10 in their development, and that my friend is right, the end goal is not for Zambia to be like Canada – however, Zambia does have to follow a similar path to reach that final goal. Look at the possibilities of where Canada can go in the next 50 years. It’s amazing. I picture people thinking more long term, making smarter purchases based on quality rather than satisfying an imaginary need - and I picture electric cars and cleaner energy sources. I picture stronger communities. But all of this isn’t possible without first becoming productive and wealthy. Maybe Zambia won’t spend as much time at stage 5, but first it has to get through stage 3.

To answer her second question, about whether it is morally right to guide the changes for another culture, whether through business or otherwise, I have to say that I don’t know. I have to say that it’s true that my actions, whether with other Canadians or with Zambians, will affect both myself and the person I’m with. If I’m in Canada, maybe I create a change that is bad for Canadians. The same can happen in Zambia. The important thing to me is that I try my best to always have a holistic perspective so that my actions aren’t selfish, but rather beneficial to everyone involved. What I do know for certain, is that giving something for free is a terrible way to try and help someone. Selling something with a subsidy is much better since at least there is some buy in from the customer (this includes health care and education) but definitely the ultimate goal has to be straight up business.

So my personal success seems to be back on track for now.

Then there is Zambia’s success. What does this mean?

I’ll get to this in my next blog post.

How Lucky am I?

There’s a trick that my Dad once taught me... well, actually, I think I learned it from comment he made to my sister. It was something like – all it takes to be in a good mood, or to be happy, is to tell yourself that you’re in a good mood. Not sure I ever really put this into practice, and fairly certain my sister didn’t either, but it stuck somehow and here I am reading a book many years later thinking about it.

Since coming to Zambia, I’ve been acutely aware of all the difficulties that I’m surrounded by. It can be hot, it can be difficult to communicate - eating, sleeping, walking, sweating, and trying to do pretty much anything is more difficult than it is in Canada. That is, unless I have a whack of cash – then it doesn’t matter where I am in the world, things get easier.

Anyway, so here I am. Where exactly? A place that isn’t on the map. In Rent-to-Own we have an agent here, and we call it “Kasempa Turn-off”. Yup, I’m at a place that is defined by a junction in the road going to somewhere else. It’s about 800 km from the capital city of Zambia. There’s no power, no running water, not even any surface water. There are people around though, and through some odd circumstances, we chose to have an agent here.

Six months ago I came here to hire this agent. I really had no idea what I was doing, but something told me that Rent-to-Own might work in other areas outside of the one community that I knew – Mwinilunga. Now that I look back, it was ridiculous and truly difficult. The trip was my first to see the entire province, and I’ve since labelled it “two guys in a RAV4”.

Today, I realized halfway through my trip to visit all 10 of our agents, that this trip is actually the culmination of 6 months of hard work. We now have a truck of our own, and we have almost $60,000 of new capital to put towards renting more equipment. We have 5 employees and are a proper registered company here in Zambia. Possibly the biggest difference to me, is that I no longer have other duties (well, of course I have some but by and large Rent-to-Own is my main priority).

Yes. Driving 3000 km for 20 days in rural Zambia might sound like a haul, like a job, or like a sacrifice even. However, the beautiful thing is that it’s a dream come true. Every day I wake up and spend it talking to business owners about how they can grow their business. We go from 6am to 6pm. In essence, we are like investors, looking for small businesses that can pay back the original capital, plus a return. Not just a financial return, but a social return. If you think about it, I’m pretty sure you’ll discover that a financial return for any business, whose annual revenues are less than $2000, is actually synonymous with social returns. Even if they’re cutting down trees, or growing tobacco. The only sustainable life I’ve seen, is a life that exists on more than $5 a day.

So here I am, under the Milky Way stars, happily reporting on how things are in a place that doesn’t exist on a map. I can easily see how my situation could be viewed as a pile of brutal work, but with trying, just like my Dad said – being happy is all in how you think about it.

Today, it’s no longer two guys in a RAV4, it’s now “3 guys in a Canter Truck”

what's the difference?

what's the difference....

I’m getting to see a new part of Africa. Two weeks in Ghana. All I know of Africa is Zambia, and a glimpse of Johannesburg. If you asked me last month, how I would rate places on their development, it would be something like this.

Germany – 9.9

Canada – 9.5

South Africa - 8.0

Zambia – 4.0

.....Ghana - 6.0

I’m sitting in an internet café in Tamale, Ghana. I’ve only spent a day and half exploring, but the differences are stark. The difference between Canada and Ghana is huge, same with Canada and Zambia...but now I can clearly see how Zambia and Ghana are not alike.

This reminds me of when I couldn’t see the spectrum of wealth in Zambia based on people’s houses. They were either rich families in a house with glass windows, painted walls and a wall fence. Or they were run down mud-brick houses that looked like it could cave in if you push against it. Then I lived in a mud-hut, and slowly the tiny differences revealed themselves. I didn’t have a door, or window....so I got them ($40). Then I wanted a bed and a mattress ($115). Then after a while I got tired of the termites eating through my floor, so I decided to put in a cement floor ($20). The wall was rough and always dirty, but I didn’t want to spend another $30 to plaster it and paint it. The roof was the ceiling, and the roof leaked. Also, there were tiny particles that always dropped and I’d wake up to find them on my bed in the morning. So I got creative and made a ‘ceiling’ from used sacks. ($10). After a few months without a mirror, I wanted a mirror ($8). And of course in the cold season, I needed an extra blanket ($10). In less than a year, I’d taken my little room through 5 levels of improvement at a total cost of $200.

If you asked my Dad what he saw, I’m sure he’d say “a mud-hut”. Meanwhile I’d invested a lot in it. To me it was clearly better than the neighbours.

So now I look at Ghana and I see the same things. The government actually does stuff here. The mail system works. There are street lights. There are sidewalks. And people are busy – the computer next to me has 4 people surrounding it, reading about college application requirements, the guy on my left is organizing something on the phone. Phones! The cost of speaking to someone is about 1/3^rd of what it is in Zambia. Transport! The cost of fuel is almost half what it is in Zambia, and taxi’s are about 1/3^rd of Zambia’s rates and a 5 ton truck to travel over 800km is of course much cheaper (about 75% of Zambian rates). Electricity is more money here, recently hiked up to $.14 /kWhr compared to Zambia’s $.05/kWhr – but its on all the time!

My friend Chiko asked me “what’s the difference”?

I didn’t have the heart to say;

“Ghana's economy is 20 years ahead of Zambia's”.

“Thousands of women are riding around on motorbikes with their babies behind”

“It's cheap enough that I can call people and have patient real conversations with them, even internationally”

“The internet is way faster – and they’re looking forward to a fibre optic installation this year”

“They have an intersection with 3 levels of overpasses on it”

So instead I told him

“its hot here”

“the people are nice, but Zambians are the nicest in the world”

And I could’ve said “people prefer to shit outside, so it stinks in some places”

I find it extremely humbling to see Ghana. It hits me hard because I didn’t realize that I would rate Ghana as a 6 out of 10...and be forced to rate Zambia as a 3 or 4.

Sorry Chiko, the truth is that Zambia has a ways to go. Zambia needs to use its copper assets to improve education, health care, infrastructure and the legal system. They need donors that can see the difference between Zambia and Ghana, and that solutions in one don’t always work in the other. When you’re here long enough, the differences are stark.

Visitors

A PHOTO UPDATE

After 2 years of doing my thing in Zambia, my Dad decided it was time to see what exactly that thing was. We coordinated with Sandra, a big supporter of EWB, so that they could get the same tour of Zambia. Sandra brought along her Dad, Herb, and my Dad didn't come alone either, he brought a fellow Rotarian, Peter.

The Four of them met some of the EWB folks in Lusaka.

Then off we went to the bush. Here we're standing with Rowland, Rent-to-Own's first full time employee. The two most popular observations on the drive were - "there's a lot of people on the road" and "look at that goat!"

Mwinilunga. After arriving in the night, the group woke up to watch the fog lift off the river. Kwakuwahi Lodge.

Before everyone was too comfortable at the lodge, Chiko wanted them to come and meet one of the Rent-to-Own clients. What they saw was a bull becoming an oxen.

Then we were off to the village. But before you can bring visitors to the village, the chief has to welcome you. Here we are being introduced to the customs and rituals before meeting Senior Chief Kanong'esha.

It was really interesting. The Senior Chief was extremely happy, he'd never had visitors direct from Canada before. He really took to Sandra, it was probably a new experience for him to meet a women who was so successful at business and engineering, but he took it in stride and we had a great visit.

Afterwards we had a chance to get a photo together. He's such a good guy. He gave my Dad a traditional bow and arrow, Sandra was given a live chicken, and Herb received a hand-woven basket.

The next day I got sick and left them to discover Mwinilunga with the help of Mr. Matulu (my host father) and Mr. Chris Nawej (the manager of Forest Fruits). The honey factory is super busy this year, running 16 hours a day trying to keep up with the biggest harvest on record.

Here's my Dad standing in my old place. That was my room for 8 months - the roof definitely is going downhill. The visitors were greeted in proper Zambian fashion, it was a shame I missed that visit.

My favourite meal was served too.

Mr. Matulu is building a new house. This is his daughter Rachel standing where a window will soon be.

Chiko was a big help, organized the village stay and much more.

After another 12 hour ride, we were back in Lusaka to meet Dan. He interrupted his vacation in South Africa to come see Sandra and my Dad for a day. At the end of it, I believe there was a new partnership formed between Jordan Engineering and Forest Fruits.

I sent my Dad and Peter to Livingstone so I could actually do some work. They blew some money, saw some elephants, and walked around Victoria Falls. I bought and shipped off our first large truck of equipment off to the bush (some $15,000 worth)

Finally the last leg of the trip. We set off for Lake Malawi for a days rest.

The trip made me realize a few things.

First, life is easy when you have money and a nice vehicle. Zambia is a completely different country via public transit. I would guess that 99% of visitors have no idea how tough it is to move around and get anything accomplished here. 12 days is a start, but it takes months of trying to understand, of living in a village, of taking public transit, of talking to various Zambians, to actually get it.

Second, stories from Grandpa are probably the most under valued pieces of information in Canada. Herb sat with one of the Forest Fruits managers (Evans) for about 30 minutes, telling him how they didn't have electricity, running water, or even roads, when he grew up in Newfoundland. These stories are forgotten in Canada, and they're entirely unknown to a continent that is currently going through similar hardships. It completes the story of Canada, without them, there is no appreciation for what has been accomplished, and there is no sense of the path to take for millions of Africans.

Third, handouts are a natural reaction to poverty. We had a big discussion about the effect of giving something for free. Imagine you've worked hard your whole life, have made a comfortable living, and you see people experiencing harsh poverty...so you give them a bit of cash to take the edge off for a while. Maybe that means a nicer meal, some new clothes, a few drinks, whatever. Whats the harm? Does it create dependency? I think the important thing is to know what the results are when you're giving money. One person walking through a village giving money out is hardly systemic. But an organization with millions of dollars working in thousands of villages across Zambia, thats what creates dependency. Thats what destroys peoples natural feeling of ownership over their destiny.

Huge thanks to my guests. They were fun, kind, polite, and open minded throughout the trip.

A real Rent-to-Own Update - March

Sometime back in October I started testing a business idea that I had, called Rent-to-Own. I started writing about it and promising updates, but have been terrible at that because I don’t know what to write. There is really too much to say.

Today, I figured that too much information is better than not enough information, keeping in mind that it is indeed the start of a business, so I can’t divulge everything (without jeopardizing the viability of it)

Context

This week I have been travelling around the North-Western Province of Zambia to visit the 7 agents that are now working for Rent-to-Own. Two weeks ago I hired an assistant/accountant because I knew that I would be based in Lusaka, which is 1000km away. This assistant would be able to visit the agents on a regular basis so they don’t feel neglected. Six of the agents are new. I met them just 1 month ago and briefed them on the details of Rent-to-Own and asked them if they were interested. Some people deferred me to a better suited person in the community, others accepted right away. In total, I spent about 3 hours with each one, so this time I hoped to spend at least 24 hours with each one to ensure that they understand Rent-to-Own and all their responsibilities.

The following is a collection of notes and thoughts from the past week.

Here I am with one of the agents (this is actually from last month)

Content

The first client we sat with was a very nice lady who was widowed 5 years ago and has thrived and grown her farm to about 5 hectares. I showed her the questionnaire which is designed to introduce herself and her business to me. She asked “what is your company name and where is it based – why don’t you haveit written on your questionnaire?” This took me a bit by surprise, and I quickly realized how amateur I was. We don’t have an official office address, or name, or even a logo, yet we expect people to share the ins-and-outs of their business activities with us. Oops. I guess every start-up has its amateur points.

Fork in the Road

The million dollar question on my mind lately has been – “do we become a distribution company with a catalogue?” So far, Rent-to-Own is a means for people who don’t have enough capital to obtain equipment that is much needed to grow their business. But what about all the people who do have cash and want the same equipment? Surprisingly (or not) in rural Zambia there aren’t any salesmen from the big equipment companies in the capital city. Without really trying to, I have set up a network of agents that are essentially salesmen for these companies, and they happen to have the option of doing Rent-to-Own. I imagine that each agent could sell about $20,000 worth of equipment each year – about half through rent-to-own and half through cash sales.

Back to the question – “do we become a distribution company with a catalogue?” – my best guess right now is YES. The primary goal is to get more equipment into the hands of rural entrepreneurs – and renting is expensive and risky, so better to sell whenever possible. The only possible ‘con’ to this would be people seeking to rent equipment who really aren’t able to pay it off, and they request equipment only because they see it in a catalogue. My thoughts are that the in-depth business plan and questionnaire, paired with trained agents, will filter out any of these scam artists.

Organizational Culture

It became obvious that some of the agents were more excited about the newly endowed popularity than they were about helping businesses or even about making a commission. (they earn 15% once all the money is paid) Quickly I remembered the reality in which these agents have lived in their whole lives. That is, in Zambia, there is a hierarchical culture within most organizations. This culture doesn’t allow for information to flow from the bottom to the top, so the boss seldom actually knows what’s really going on. The result is that there are very few role model managers in Zambia, and so when a person is promoted they automatically act the same way they saw their boss acting.

In Rent-to-Own I need to pay careful attention to the way I treat others, and also the way anyone within Rent-to-Own treats people involved in the business. My theory is that role modeling from the top will trickle down. This will ensure that problems are addressed quickly, otherwise, when a client (farmer or small business owner) is struggling, there is no chance for me or anyone else to assist them because we wont even know what we can do to improve our support.

Free Consultation

The best thing we do is force each client to do a business plan. Its amazing how many business owners here don’t even keep records, let alone plan their cash flows or strategy for the upcoming year. This week we completed 16 business plans with potential clients. I can imagine a bank asking for a business plan and getting nothing but blank stares…kinda like when we ask the business owner what their average sales are for the month of April. Everything is based on intuition. These owners know how to survive by cutting costs and trying to sell more, but most do it without really analyzing if they even made a profit at the end of the day.

For each Rent-to-Own client we sit for about 1 hour to analyze their business and then create a plan on how they can grow their business once they have the new equipment they desire. Its difficult to extract the information because there is a lack of clarity or records, and its even more difficult to get business owners to connect the plan to reality. Most see a lot of numbers – but don’t see the connection. In essence, we are providing them a service that would normally come from fairly high paid consultants.

The White Advantage

Although we chose people who were already respected in the community, its difficult for people to get excited when one person goes around saying he can get equipment to them for just 10% of the price, and that they can pay for it over 10 months. Some will think that the 10% will disappear and the equipment will never come, others believe that the agent is honest but that the program will take years to take off (which is unfortunately common amongst donor projects). Luckily, I am white, and when a white guy shows up twice in the same month, that means he’s serious, and everyone knows that the white guy has money…so chances are that the agent is trustworthy and the equipment will actually come.

Witchcraft

A week in the bush wouldn’t be complete without a little witchcraft story. I decided to buy a tent for my travels because I like camping, and because I wanted to be closer to the agents (camping on their property) and because it’s cheaper than staying at a guest house (motel). The first few nights were great, no mosquitoes and the tent was holding up very well with the heavy rains. But last night we got in and turned on our wonderful LED light as we prepared our sleeping bags, and as if from nowhere, literally thousands of moths came to the top of our tent between the screen and the top rain-fly. My new employee, who is from the area, said the powder from the moths can cause a rash, and its likely bad to breath it in. I asked him where the moths came from – he said “there is a lot of witchcraft in this area”. Witchcraft is a really interesting aspect of Zambian culture. People believe that magic can happen against you if another person wishes it upon you. Jealousy is a common reason for one person to dislike another, and its always a freak thing. How do you explain why someone’s house was hit by lightening? Or why one person in a family got sick and died 2 days later, but no one else did? Same, how can you explain where thousands of moths came from? Of course they were attracted by the light – but still, it’s a bit freaky and when information is so limited, and science isn’t down to a science, then the default explanation is magic.

We closed off the light so the moths would leave. I guess tents have their weaknesses after all.

That’s my Rent-to-Own update. I’ll keep taking notes while in the field and write down the ones that I feel don’t jeopardize the business.

Jesus has become tough.

Tough Love

Things have changed a lot in the past 2 months. Everything I know about Zambia continues to change, and luckily, its for the better.

My first two years here were largely about me discovering a new culture, and attempting to help out an amazing visionary who's life's work will have dramatically improved the lives of some 50,000 people. I lived and worked in a relatively well defined space, at home it was with a family, and at work it was with a well established business. This was a safe space, where my mistakes were never too big.

Today I was driving around Lusaka buying this and that for Rent-to-Own, and one of my stops was at a bearing store which I've been to at least 20 times. Like a handful of other shops, the workers get a kick out of calling me Jesus. There are definitely worse names to be called, so I play off their fun a bit.

Zambians seem to have an amazing ability to read into peoples lives. Whenever I'm feeling a bit down, they notice right away, whenever my mind is somewhere else, they recognize it. So today at the bearing shop, one of the guys says "Jesus has become tough". And I think he's right, I've changed and probably don't take the time to be soft and joke as much as I use to.

Ironically, I bought some $3 glasses today for when I'm riding my bicycle. I got it a week ago and have been using it a ton to get around town, some friends and I even created our own bike-gang. Finally today I got the shades to go with it. (and no, I wasn't wearing them in the store)

I did wear a Black t-shirt today.

The point is actually fairly serious. I've said "tough love is needed" a million times before, but is this really the way I'm heading?

I'll have to hear it a few more times before putting too much weight into it, the love side is still much bigger than the tough side. (in my mind at least)

To switch gears - here is a quick rent-to-own update.

EWB has given me a 6 month pilot period to test the viability, profitability and scalability of the idea. I set a target of 35 businesses for end of April. I also identified that the model, which is essentially EWB-me-agent-entrepreneur, had its weakest point at the agent level. I also set a target of 100 businesses by October (if the pilot continues). Quickly I realized that an agent can only handle about 20 or 30 businesses at one time, so I decided to aim for bringing on 5 new agents, rather than just 1 or 2.

Chiko and I set off on a tour of the province. We visited 7 of the 8 districts and hired on 6 new agents. I also quickly realized how much work it was going to be to visit each one and get them up to speed, and of course, keep them up to speed. They're going to be collecting money and trying to choose the most viable business ideas. So I decided to hire someone to help me out. On Saturday we're setting off together to visit each agent for two full days to go through the entire process of selecting businesses and explaining to entrepreneurs how the rent-to-own system works.

There are a thousand photos to post from the last trip, but I'll do that later. Lets just say that it was raining almost the entire time, but that every stop was worth it. We'd try to find a person who is running a business, is well trusted and really knows about all the activities in the area. Almost like clock work, we'd find someone and before we left town there were people coming up to us asking about rent-to-own.

Hope thats a good enough update. There are too many things to talk about. For now, its time to print some catalogues, go and do a few dozen business plans with the agents, train my new assistant, collect starting fees, buy the equipment, ship it up to the various places and then wait for the rest of the money to start rolling in.

There are a few ideas around making rent-to-own more profitable and potentially into a proper business. The ideas are testing my balance between wanting to connect Canada to Africa, and trying to just make something work. To be honest, I'm leaning towards just making it work, and leaving the lofty connecting to Canada part behind. Possibly more on that subject another time.

A Week in the Mud

Last week we headed down to Chiawa, an area on the north shores of the Zambezi river. Our job was to assemble & distributed 150 hives to 70 people on a rental basis. It was a lot of hard work, but the team was strong and we managed to get them out there.

This week I'm heading up to start a new phase of rent-to-own.

The stories are in the pictures. Enjoy.

Stuck again. My ability to drive in the mud is fairly limited, who knew.

James built his own hive to save money and still be able to sell honey this June.

There was a huge community effort in getting the hives assembled, very impressive cooperation and I guess finger painting is fun no matter where you are.

Here I am with some of the crew.

Piles of wood waiting to be assembled into beehives.

We worked with a group to extract honey and wax from the comb. Everyone enjoyed this.

Each hive weighs at least 20 lbs. These women are tough, they carry baby and 50lbs on the head for kilometers.

Part of the crew parked beside a baobab tree. These trees can be 800 years old!!

We're walking back to Joster's house as he carried little Jane.