While Jen spent the morning in bed working to kick a mild cold, Dave went to the internet café to bring Cheri up to date on our progress. The speed of the internet is still far below what we are spoiled with at home, but it is improving. After the internet, Theresa and Pauline accompanied Dave to buy the next batch of chitenge for Martin to turn into Living Compassion monk bags.
The team laying out chitenge for Martin.
Next, Dave and team headed downtown to the Department of Water Affairs. We were in search of the lead water engineer for the province, Mr. Chomba, a friendly and charming man whom we had met on our last journey. Over the past two months we have pleaded with Mr. Chomba via email to arrange for the province’s one drilling rig to be made available for us to dig a well (called a “bore-hole” in Zambia), on our new property in Kantolomba during this short visit. We arrived at his office full of hope and expectation, only to find out that Mr. Chomba was transferred last week to Lusaka, and could not be contacted.
Disappointed, but not deterred, we introduced ourselves to Mr. Chaila, Mr. Chomba’s replacement. Alas, he informed us that Mr. Chomba had told him nothing of our project, that the proper paperwork had not been completed, and that the rig was not available. Things looked bleak for a few moments, especially as Mr. Chaila seemed fierce in his determination to refuse us help. He was not equal to our good-natured begging, however, and before long we had a confession from him that the rig was at that moment finishing a job in a town 50 kilometers away, that it was coming next to Ndola for servicing, and that there was an outside chance he could fit us in before we departed. At the same time he told us he was under tremendous political pressure to send the rig immediately down to the Southern Province, out of our reach, but he promised he would see what he could do. As far as we can tell, to a person the Zambian people have hearts as big as, well, a well-digging rig, and Mr. Chaila is no exception.
The drilling rig
Before returning to the guesthouse for lunch, the team visited Celtel, one of the leading cell phone companies in Zambia, to try to rejuvenate our cell phone. Cell phones in Zambia are a pay-as-you-go system. You buy a scratch card and enter the number into your phone, rendering you units of “talk time.” We did not realize that if you don’t “top-up” your card at least once each month, the company will lock the phone. We had not topped up since we were here in October. Efforts to unlock our old number were unsuccessful so we bought a new SIM card to put in our phone. We will need to disseminate our new phone number to all our Ndola contacts. Always new beginnings.
After a simple lunch at the guesthouse, we began work on our afternoon agenda. Jen seemed to be on the mend so she joined the team. On our way to meet with Godfrey (our local computer whiz kid), we ran into the District Commissioner. When we greeted him, he asked about our work in Kantolomba and mentioned that he knew many houses had collapsed in this rainy season. In fact, Theresa had told us that so far 85 houses have at least partially collapsed, 18 completely to the ground! We had heard that houses collapse at this time of year, but being here in the middle of rainy season puts the reality squarely in front of us. Eighty-five desperately poor households are now faced with finding alternative shelter from now until late March, when the rains will stop and they can rebuild their houses. The DC once again expressed his desire to assist us in any way he can.
We have long had an ambition to bring high-speed wireless internet to Kantolomba. People are often surprised to learn this is one of our priorities, but only, we think, because they think of Kantolomba only as a slum and they have not had the great pleasure of meeting the people here. The people of Kantolomba are like people everywhere: they have dreams; they want what everyone wants; they are endlessly inventive; and many wish to make a real difference in the world. Their only trouble is poverty separates them from opportunities other people enjoy. They are far away from commerce and services. We hope, via the internet, to bring this world of opportunity right here to the people of Kantolomba.
Enter Godfrey, a young Zambian, who has accomplished the incredible feat of mastering state-of-the-art information technology, both hardware and software, right here in Ndola. We met him a year and a half ago at the internet café downtown. Recognizing his gifts, we asked if he would help us with our work with the people of Kantolomba. He said yes, and agreed to assist as he could until the time we could put him to work in earnest for Living Compassion.
Godfrey
When we asked Godfrey about the possibility of linking Kantolomba with the world, he answered, “No problem.” We were not surprised, actually. From everything we can see, Africa is about to enter the information age in the biggest possible way. The equipment is here, Godfrey told us, right in Ndola, to provide a wireless link to anyplace in the city with line-of-sight access to the towers standing on top of Koloko Hill, the highest spot in the area. What is more, the antennae and other specialized pieces of hardware can be acquired with little trouble, and Godfrey assured us that he has the expertise to install them. Obviously, we are more than blessed in our friendship with this man.
As he described the system we would need and how it would be constructed, we had to laugh; it is exactly what we have created these past two years at the Monastery. Three years ago none of us understood anything of towers and cables and routers; it was only when we decided to enter the information age ourselves that we began to bridge the gap between the possibility we knew was there and the means to accomplish it. Since then, we have created our own homemade wireless empire on the Monastery property. We have done this before in the wilds of Calaveras County so we know it can be done. Best of all, we know how to do it. With Godfrey’s assistance we will create another homemade wireless empire in a slum in Africa!
We left our meeting with Godfrey in high spirits and with one pressing question: Would we have line-of-sight from our property in Kantolomba to Koloko Hill? We made a note to look the next time we were in Kantolomba.
Back to the guesthouse for a meeting with Steve, the head of the city buildings department, who will draw the plans for the new Kantolomba Community Center. We walked through our vision for the building, and Steve helped us understand our options for building materials, structural styles and other such details. He is clearly a talented engineer, and also seems to have the standard big heart and desire to assist.
Steve surveying the property last October.
Jen went to rest while Dave prepared a fabulous dinner using silken tofu he toted all the way from the U.S.