BARTER AND TRADE

The Barter and Trade System Is Alive and Well

We know, we use it all the time.

Image created by Author on Canva.

As full-time travelers for more than 4 years now, we have devised creative ways to find free accommodation. Of course, this helps us to stay out on the road for longer and makes it easier to budget for traveling.

To get free accommodation we exchange services. Whether painting artwork, housesitting or volunteering for a project, we exchange our services for accommodation and sometimes food.

But there are other things that we barter and trade for as well.

Chris, for example, is a tattoo artist. He doesn’t carry his machines anymore because all of that was too bulky, instead, he carries a supply of single-use needles and ink. So he does ‘stick and poke’ tattoos which is the traditional way that it was done before machines came to be.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend that we had met here, in Uganda, also named Chris asked him if he would tattoo him. He just wanted a simple line design.

Of course, my Chris said yes, and they agreed on a price.

A couple of days later, we learned that his Belgian wife was a hairdresser back in Belgium. She mentioned casually at dinner one…