Solwezi

Solwezi is the town that Mom and Dad live in now. When we were growing up it was the end of a string of towns know as the copper belt. Solwezi didn't have copper but it was a provincial (think state) capital and had some, if poor, shopping. Beyond Solwezi you stepped off into bush. The blacktop went another 36km and then on to Mwinilunga. If you were going to Sakeji that was all well and good, but if you were going anywhere else-like most all the places we ever lived-then it was washboards and ruts and painfully slow dusty roads. Now that Mom and Dad have moved into town those roads are paved and only takes 1/3 of the time to travel. Oh well. 

Today Solwezi is a mining town and we have two more up the road towards Mwinilunga. There is talk of two more going in and the ones we have doubling in size within the next few years. Needless to say this has affected life in town just a tad. The other two mines have housing and limited shopping but most everyone comes to Solwezi to shop. Wiki says the town is about 67,000, it serves a much larger community.

Solwezi did at one time have a town plan with nice big lots. Now there is quite a housing shortage. Over time some of those lots have been divided so that there are four houses instead of two between streets.  Somehow no one expected the growth that came with the mines. The town just grew up around the one two-lane road that passes through town. If you need to drive through town right now there is no back way. Most of the neighborhoods you also have to go to the main road and then up to where ever you want, at least if you are driving.  Zambia has different levels of property rights. If you live in tribal lands then you talk to the chief and come to some type of agreement. The other land is leased from the central government, nobody owns land, so the best you can hope for is a 99 year lease. This land can either be obtained by the chief transferring it or it being in town. If you live in town you can also get a plot on city land. Basically what that does is allow you to live there and build. The requirement is that you develop the land and not hold it to speculate. This allows people who are lower or middle class to afford a house and keeps the super rich from holding all the land. You must, however, do some development in three years or the city gets the land back and gives it to someone else. Getting the title deed is your responsibility. All over town people are building houses in advance of the coming rains. They are supposed to get permits and all that but, well, what they don't know won't hurt them, right. It would not take much effort to show you a number of places that people have not built in the right place and since the road has not really been put in except on paper it gets moved. Talking to various people you hear about conflicts between neighbors, that when it gets to court it turns out buildings were built without permits, but often possession is in fact nine tenths of the law, especially if you build with burned rather than mud brick. New roads are being aggressively built and there is talk of a bypass.

The first and pretty much last word for grocery shopping in Solwezi is a South African chain store called Shoprite. Sure there are others shops,  but for what would be analogous to Albertson's or Kroger, Shoprite is it. Someone said that this one has the highest per-store sales of any in Zambia. I believe it. It is always busy. One of the main ways Shoprite differs from any grocery store in America is that the manager plays his choice of music. Most days that means late 80s country music. Some days it's praise and worship music. This is a pretty common phenomenon. If a African hears something they like, they play it. On the radio and in buses the play lists are nowhere near as segmented as you would expect in the US. Commercial television is the same way. When I was in Tanzania I watched a good bit of TV. Lots of the music videos appeared to have been made by someone who had the money to make them staring, them. One hour would be hard core American rap the next local language gospel. With the Christian music everyone was either dressed to the 9s or all the singers had matching outfits. Usually with steps, elaborate steps mind you, but not dancing.

So what, with one thing and another I will have been in town just over two months and Zambia three. What exactly have I been up to? Well I had hoped to do some real work about the place and maybe help people out or something. The main problem was the terms of my visa. Allow me to quote.

VISITOR IS NOT TO ENGAGE IN EMPLOYMENT
PAID OR UNPAID OR IN ANY BUSINESS OF
PROFESSION. NOT ALLOWED TO CHANGE
PURPOSE OF ENTRY WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION

So you can see my problem.....

The Wesslers are a young missionary couple who are also with SIM, Luke attended DTS. I have hung out with them some. They have become involved with a home base care program ministering to HIV patients. Besides teaching and discipleship for both the staff and patients they encourage them in various things that they can do to support themselves. Luke and Tiff are very committed to making sure that everything they do can be self sustaining. Beyond that ministry, Tiff has gotten involved with a woman's Bible study for mine workers' wives. There is a large South African community here in town who work on the mine, mostly as managers and specialists. The mine built housing for their managers and since it was really them doing the building, it's nice. The housing is built on a golf course with a good game fence to hold in the impala, zebra and sable. There is a good restaurant and club with a swimming pool, tennis courts and workout room. Initially many of men left their wives in South Africa but the wives soon figured out that they were kissing their girlfriends goodbye at the airport when they flew south to see them. Now there are lots of wives up here living in Solwezi but there is little to do here. Tiff has found that this community, which is insular to most Zambians, is open to ministry for her.

Many of the miners are at best nominal Christians but there are a few faithful  families. I begged a tour of the mine from one. I could bore you with soluble and insoluble ores but really it's best to just say it was cool to see copper at its beginning after having used the end product for so many years. I've included a picture of the pit-just because. Keep in mind the trucks down there are carrying 150 ton. The only thing they are really going after is copper. As a bonus they have a centrifugal machine that takes out the gold which is a minor part of their profit.

Solwezi does have some culture. There is 'cave' with ancient engraving in the rock. Yep it's pretty much that exciting. Just to make it more interesting I'm including a picture of Mom and Dad. Mom insisted that this would be a great place to take a picture, I think she just wanted to catch her breath.

Dad is involved in teaching in churches. The program that he uses was developed many years ago by various missionaries in Kenya and translated to local languages by our missionaries. Dad leaves teaching in churches here in town to local pastors and drives to out laying churches. Every other Friday he travels to his two furthest out and takes a local pastor with him who teaches at one on the way. Mom has a woman's Bible study she teaches every other month. Some time ago she taught on Elijah and some women wanted her notes. That has turned into a small Kaonde book which is currently in the proof reading stage.

I know this is a dead horse, but it's my dead horse. Needless to say both the Wesslers and Mom and Dad are debt free. The only debt that I'm aware of that the parents have ever had was when they got their first house. It is some indication of how far house prices have come since 1968 that the loan that they had to take on the house was only $2,500. They did have a good down payment.