Pictures You Want To See (The Kasumbalesa Business)

Remember the story I published a few weeks ago (Trading At Kasumbalesa, My Experience)? well, I found more pictures on my laptop today of that trip and my experience. I just thought I should share with you. Enjoy ;-) 

About to start off from Kasumbalesa to Lusaka. We had to get on a truck, on the back with all the coldness of Zambian winter.

This is at the Village were we went to look for goats in Southern Zambia

Waiting for transport to take us to a nearby town where we could get on a truck. This cow was our transport.

This is a funny one lol! My friend Nanzila was having issues the her goat, it didn't want to move, she decided to carry it by force!

I don't know if i mentioned in my article, but we also bought these pigs. Oh yes, we carried them on our own.., no men involved lol!

This is the village in Mazabuka where we were received. I was trying to find some network connection around 5am.

Pulling my very stubborn goat with all my strength

Getting ready to get on this truck to take us to the village in Mazabuka.

My friend Nanzila

Found some guys making fire at some car wash, we decided to join and make ourselves warm.

This is some restaurant in Choma were we had some breakfast. We were broke, we couldn't go to a fancy  one lol!

THE DRY FISH BUSINESS; This a truck that carries all your goodies, all these bundles are bundles of dry fish. The truck comes with the fishermen from Southern Zambia and comes with them to Lusaka (Ku-mobil, behind Chibolya). Then we buy the fish and use the same truck to transport it to Kasumbalesa.

And we get on this bus and the truck with the fish follows behind.

WHAT AN EXPERIENCE! 

Trading At Kasumba-Lesa..; My Experience

Hi everyone. Its been a few weeks since my last post and I would like to apologize to my readers for that. Well, I am back now and today am gonna share with you a very interesting topic.

Well, for the past one year and some months, I have been living in two countries. I have been living both in Zambia (my home) and in Denmark. I would like to say that I am a "Nomad". and I somehow like it ;-) . 

THE GOAT BUSINESS

Sometime last year, I think that was in June/July, I visited home and I had a few cash on me. I wanted to double my cash, so I decided to find a quick business to do since I was going to be home for three months. I did my research but apparently I didn't do it thoroughly. One day, a friend of mine came by and suggested that we put our monies together and go into the villages to buy live goats so that we can take them to Kasumbalesa (It's a town that boarders Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo). I was told that, when we go in the nearby villages especially in the southern part of Zambia, we will be able to buy one goats for about K100.00 (about US$13) each and we will be able to sell them in Kasumbalesa for upto k600.00 (US$90). Oh yes!!! you heard me right hehehehe! I wanted to buy 20 goats and I didn't even hesitate. The following day, my friend and I went to look for goats in the villages. We went to Choma (Southern Zambia). I remember we got there a bit late in the evenings and we had to sleep on the veranda at one of the shops.. We didn't want to book ourselves into a lodge because we didn't want to spend anymore of our capital money. We already saw ourselves as millioniers and we were ready to sacrifice.

We never even slept that night, the floor was so hard plus it was very cold (that was during the Zambian winter). We ended up joining some call-boys who had made a very big fire and that fire went on through out the night. They were very nice boys and harmless. They welcomed us and we started roasting and eatin some sweet potatoes. It was a great evening and the boys kept telling us about their lives and listened to some juicy stories about there gilfriends and wives. The following day, we took off around 5am into the villages, and guess what? There were no goats anywhere near..., we walked for maybe about 10km or more deep inside the villages and we came across this small village where we were told to wait till the following morning because it was late and we were tired and hungry. There was this man, who was a friend of the village headman who welcomed us with his wife and family. They were really nice people, (i need to go and visit them some day). We were given some food, and a warm place to spend a night. In the morning, we were taken to the headman for an introduction (you dont do busines in the village without an introduction to the chief or the headman). After the introduction, we were directed where to go and look for goats.

Anyway, we never found any goats in that village, so was in the next and the next and the next village. We spent one week trying to find these goats so that we can be millioniers! There were no goats!!! We managed to find one though and it was going for about us$20 and we also ended up buying live pigs that weigh about 200kgs each. Bought five pigs for about US$50 each. We never went to kasumbalesa because we ran out of cash and the we ended up selling them in Lusaka at a place called "pa Kabesha" in Chibolya compound (you can sell anything at this place). We sold them at the same price we bought them at.

The following week, we tried in some villages in Kaoma, Mazabuka and Siavonga. Believe me, there were no goats! When we were in Siavonga, we even tried to buy bags of dry kapenta (very small dried fish).

THE DRY FISH BUSINESS

That's me, selling dry fish at Kasumbalesa

Then two weeks later, another friend encouraged me to try dry fish. I was told to buy some dried fish from Lusaka (the capital City of Zambia) and take them to Kasumbalesa. (appearently, Kasumbalesa is extremyly good for business. Because of the conflict that has been going on in Congo for many years, there is a shortage of so many commodities). People from Congo can only buy commodities from the nearby countries. And Kasumbalesa is one of the boarders that offer different types of business opportunities both for the Zambian people and the Congolese people.

THE RICHEST WOMAN IN AFRICA...,Folorunsho Alakija

Folorunsho Ajakija is reported to be the richest woman in Africa and the riches black woman in the world! Beating the talk show queen Oprah Winfrey on the ladder. Folorunsho Alakija is worthy about $7.3billion while Oprah is at $2.9billion this is according to Ventures Africa .

The Nigerian 63 years old billionaire started her career as a secretary in a bank in Nigeria before she quite to go and sturdy fashion and design in England. She returned to Nigeria after her studies and founded Supreme Stitches, a fashion label that catered the high class women in society. But her breakthrough came in 1993 when her oil company Famfa oil which was awarded an oil prospecting licence which later became OML 127. OML 172 is Nigeria's most prolific oil blocks. The company produces about 200,000 barrels per day. Famfa Oil which Alakija controls has 60% in OML 172.

Folorunsho Alakija                                 Oprah Winfrey

Alakija

SUCCESS AND YOU part one

SUCCESS;

When you hear this word, your mind immediately races to MONEY. Yes, to most of us we link success to financial freedom or wealth but actually Success is more than that. I will try to write down what i understand about this great word. Actually my partner and i were just talking about it this morning and he said something that has stuck in my head about Success.

For me success is more than money and to be successful is more than just having a financial freedom or having wealth. Making other people happy and putting a smile on someones face is a success. being happy with yourself is a success, encouraging someone who is feeling low is also part of success, having a great and happy family is success, having a healthy relationship with people around you at work or school is success, the list is endless.

Lets look at the most people that we call "successful people", how many of them are actually happy? i am not going to mention any names...,do a survey yourselves but i will tell you one thing, only a few of these people are actually happy. For me you are not successful if you are miserable or if you make other people miserable no matter how much billions of dollars you are worthy. In this context, i say that being happy is the greatest success and happiness comes in many forms e.g doing something for someone like taking care of their dog, helping your parents with chores makes you happy then good ..that's great because not many people can do that.

SUCCESS IN BUSINESS

Just like i mentioned earlier.., success also means happiness. I believe that if you want to do a business and you want it to be a success, you should do a business that in lines with what makes you happy. for example if you love cooking, why don't you start a restaurant and give it all that you have. if you are a good singer, then sing. Basically we were all given some talents that we were born with by God, and these are the things that we enjoy doing everyday...,like singing, cooking, taking pictures, writing etc. Use that to become what you want to be. Let something that comes naturally to you bring you the success that you want.

And when it comes to business, don't underestimate the beginning. start from something small..,and start with what you have, it can not be much to some people but it is something to you. start with that and be happy with it. nature it and watch it grow..., that's your baby and once it grows and becomes visible to the world, you will be so proud and so happy and that is what i call success.