Zimbabwean Commuter: It Never Rains But Pours

The Zimbabwean commuter has been worst hit by the economic meltdown. At some point fares were changing everyday. This developed to twice a day. As a traveller you had to be prepared to be told any price as you got into the commuter bus. Now new problems have come. The recently introduced ten trillion dollar note has compounded the commuter woes. While on one of these commuter buses a passenger decided to make life easier for the conductor by collecting the money from a fellow passenger and passed over a ten trillion note to the conductor for the two. The conductor rejected the note saying that he needed five trillion notes only. He argued that the ten trillion was not accepted by the owner of the commuter bus because he claimed it was impossible to buy things with. "They cannot find change for it," said the conductor. What it simply means is that our money is no longer user friendly. On one route passengers were asked to pay a dollar (One USD) per two passengers. How you bring that money together or how you share the change is your own nightmare since they do not accept foreign money coins at the moment. It seems it never rains but pours for the Zimbabwean commuter.