Collection

Standard Chartered

The past couple years I've been collecting visits to banks in Choma. Surprisingly, we have at least 8 (EIGHT!) banks in our small town. It seems like new banks are popping up every few months. 

As would be expected, banking isn't the same here as in the States.

One thing that’s different is that I have to physically go to specific banks to make certain money transfers/payments (instead of all money being sent electronically). For example, if a scholarship student’s school banks with a different bank than I do, I have to draw cash from my bank and deposit it into the student’s school’s bank. (confused? I’m not surprised…)

the lion bank :)

So, a few months into my stay I decided make a sort of game of collecting as many banks as possible on my invisible list of “Have-banked-with-banks-in-Choma.”

So far, I have collected:

• Standard Chartered
• Finance Bank
• InvesTrust
• ZANACO (Zambia National something-or-another)
• Barclays

I've also used the ATM at StanBic, but that doesn't really count, because I wasn't required to go inside the building, wait through a queue, and work with a teller.

Maybe I should pray for more scholarship students at different schools so I can collect the rest of the banks in Choma!  :)