"Yes, what you are saying is very true. The money that we make by selling vegetables is not enough. We can’t even afford to eat meat frequently, send our children to school and buy new clothes. Life is truly a bit ….. harsh on us," the oldest lady lamented as she thought about life.
Alayna understood what they were talking about as she had experienced it too, "this is the reason why I came up with a solution. Today I am going to talk about stokvel, a program that I came up with. I will be explaining it to you at a slower pace and if you don’t understand, please don’t hesitate to ask questions."
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The ladies were even more curious to hear more so they silently urged her with their twinkling eyes. Elena couldn’t help but smile happily seeing how Alayna had won over these ladies in such a short time.
Elena and the ladies began to listen attentively as Alayna explained herself about this stokvel program of hers.
"The benefits of the stokvel are many and this is something that you will see in the future if you take part in it. Let’s say you want to expand your business or start a new one, if you are doing one that requires you to share your money after one week, it means that the person chosen for that week will receive the money from everyone including herself and this money can be used as capital to start the business."
"This money however will be returned back to the owners every week and in the same manner, you received yours. You can consider it as giving each other loans but the loans don’t incur any interest.
So, you can choose the weekly, monthly, or yearly ones depending on how urgent you want the money. Someone else will become your banker for example in this case, I won’t run away with your money, I still have a business to take care of," Alayna chuckled as she thought of the insecurities people have when entrusting their money to other people.
The ladies also blushed but this couldn’t be helped as this was their first-time hearing about something like this.
"This, lady Alayna, does it really work in the way that you are saying?" the youngest of them all asked nervously.
Alayna smiled warmly as she looked at the young girl who was barely eighteen years old, "yes, it does work but we don’t want any untrustworthy people as these people can make the whole thing flop. We wouldn’t want anyone running away without paying back the money."
The ladies began to chatter among themselves and Alayna could see that they were considering it so much.
"You don’t have to rush into accepting, you can go back home and think about it. If you agree to join, we will set a fixed amount that can be paid in one week or one month depending on which period you are interested in. I will come back again next week but you can also come and find me or send a message to the Dark Forest," Alayna conceded as she didn’t want to force them into joining when they haven’t digested much about it.
"Thank you for thinking about us first. Can anyone else join?"
"Yes, anyone can join but if it’s a weekly contribution scheme then only up to eight people can join one group. If there is more, we can open another group.
If it is a monthly one, one group should have a minimum number of three people and a maximum number of six people, and a yearly one, it can have at least twenty people to make it have some order," Alayna patiently answered.
The ladies were very excited to hear this, so they asked a few more questions and Alayna answered as patiently as she could.
After spending three hours together, the ladies finally separated and they were very eager to return back to their villages and spread this good news.
As Alayna and Elena were about to leave where they came across the inn’s manager waiting for them.
"I am very sorry about stopping you midway but I would like to have a word with you," the female manager politely said.
As long as one carries no harmful intentions toward her, Alayna was very friendly with everyone.
"Okay, lead the way."
The manager was very relieved to see her agreeing, so Alayna was then taken to another private room where she found several noble ladies seated and having some tea.
"Please, take a seat."
Alayna took a seat while Elena stood with the other servants and waited to serve her mistress. To think that she will be downgraded to this lowest level, she found her situation to be very interesting.
"So, how can I help you, ladies?" Alayna wasn’t intimated by them at all and asked with a relaxed expression.
The manager looked at Alayna with reverend eyes, she had managed to overhear the conversation earlier and she fell in love with what she heard. She couldn’t help but call her friends over to tell them about this amazing idea.
"I am sorry for overstepping my boundaries but I couldn’t help but overhear about your stokvel program. I and my friends are very interested in this program and I was wondering if we can also partake in it and join," the manager humbly spoke as she looked at Alayna with eager eyes.
Alayna wasn’t upset when she heard this, she was even racking her brains to find a way to breach this topic to the noble and rich, who knew that they will send themselves to her this fast?
"It’s okay, it is something that can be done by everyone. It doesn’t discriminate between the poor or the rich, men or women, though I favor women more in my case," she chuckled as she said that.
The ladies also laughed with her as they found her humor to be very …
"It’s like this ….." Alita began to explain once more to the noble ladies and since they are more learned and understand much quicker than the commoners, the time she spent to make them understand was much faster.